I am a fan of Seth, in awe of his seemingly endless stream of wise words and erudite observations, I read whatever he chooses to publish and have yet to be disappointed.
Poke the Box starts with a story about Annie Downs, an ‘initiator’. In fact, it’s not so much the story of Annie as the introduction to the story. We are never told the full tale and are told that if we are curious about the whats and the hows then we are asking the wrong questions!
Seth gives examples of our accepted business models that are no longer working and cites cases of individuals and industries that have failed to adapt to changing markets and withered and died as a result.
Whereas it was once enough to simply show up and do the work, whatever that might be, Seth asserts that the new essential ingredient for success is initiative. This book is Seth’s manifesto about starting, about taking the inititative.
As I read the six identified ‘imperatives’ I could relate to all of them – what business person couldn’t? These imperatives are all about identifying and understanding the market, building trust and brand, having a product or service that meets a need and working efficiently to manage the business well. You don’t need to have emerged from Business School clutching your Diploma to recognise these business basics.
The problem is that there is a 7th imperative. One that doesn’t get the same coverage as so few people actually do it. Most businesses and business people convince themselves they are working hard and smart by circling in an endless loop around the first 6 imperatives and never ever make it to the 7th. These are the businesses that are always seeking funding, that bemoan the current lack of credit and make up the bulk of the horrendous bankruptcy statistics.
The 7th imperative is ‘shipping’. It’s no secret. Seth has been banging his shipping drum for quite a while now and he does it very articulately.
Seth Godin: Quieting the Lizard Brain from 99% on Vimeo.
Shipping is the differentiator and it’s the stage that many businesses never reach.
I have worked as a business consultant and I have freely offered my time as a business mentor and observed time after time that the reluctance to ship is seemingly one of the hardest problems for a business owner to overcome.
Working with angel investors I have observed countless businesses and entrepreneurs seek more and more funding so they can delay the terrifying moment when they have to start shipping. How much less frightening is it to be at work every day, being busy with market research, product creation, logo design and even participating on Twitter and the like (the latter is of course just to build trust and rapport)?
How many businesses have simply run out of money and lines of credit while they continue to resist shipping? And, these are not just small businesses. Large organisations have also disappeared when they have failed to react to the pace of change in the world
Seth’s book isn’t just for entrepreneurs and budding business folk. It’s for everyone. He challenges the employed as well as the self employed to start looking for possibilities, to challenge the status quo, to recognise that their current pond may have been overfished and polluted, leaving it stagnant and dead.
All of us need to be open to paddling our own canoes into fresh water. Water where there is a current, life, energy and forward motion.
‘Having ideas is not enough’, says Seth. Reading this provided an ouch moment for me. I have the portfolio of domain names that attests to my own abundance of ideas. Ideas lack life force. It’s the starting, the innovating and shipping that adds the life force to an idea.
Of course, there are dangers in being an initiator. There will be failures. Fingers of blame will be pointed. Not many of us are prepared to be wrong, we want to avoid the perceived stigma attached to failure. Seth gives you permission to fail. In fact, he points out that failure is inevitable – it’s a good thing. To accept his premise needs a real change of mind set in most of us.
Starting a new business now is different from how it used to be. The old ways have been overdone and exhausted. There are all manner of people who can offer advice and guidance but the playing field has changed. Seth points out the secret of startup business success now is curiosity. A willingness to try, to see what happens and to refine and try again.
It’s taken me a while to publish this review of Poke the Box. The book has been out for a while but, having read it, I felt ashamed. I felt as if I had no spark of innovation, no creative cells in my body – I felt excluded. Having listened to and observed others this seems to be a common fear. It now occurs to me that there is no shame in first struggling to find the spark that I believe resides within us all. There is no shame in having to fan that spark into life. God knows society is geared up to smother it from a very early age. I think everyone can be forgiven for struggling to coax their own spark into a tentative flame let alone a roaring blaze. For years parents, schools, colleges and workplaces have fought against initiative and innovation. ‘Do as you’re told’ has been the mantra and every time we did as we were told we heaped another pile of damp earth onto that fragile spark of creativity within ourselves and dampened down our potential for genius.
So, this is a belated review. The book is available in all manner of formats and it’s not very long so there’s no excuse. It doesn’t so much provide a kick in the pants as it does shine a light of possibility. A brilliant read.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Shipping, like giving birth, is a painful experience. Even more so when people are asking the “when is it going to come?” question and the stress starts to build because you now have the expectations of others as well to content with. Be careful that stress does not contribute to stalling in your progress (because it’s not ALWAYS fear that is holding you back). Make sure you take stock and can absolutely say that every action you are taking can be directly linked to getting your stuff out there.
A very interesting review, you have definitely convinced me to check this out. I’m also a bit of a Seth fan, but am in no way a devoted fan… so have yet to pick this up.
You talk about your fear to publish this review, due to it striking slightly too true in revealing you feel like you lack creation or imagination (Something that probably sounds familiar to most of us!). Does the book address these fears and give guidance, or is that something of a next step for you after having read the book?
If the latter, what steps do you suggest or plan on taking to fan the dim embers of imagination in to life?
Thank you again, very enjoyable review.
Jonathan, there is no 1-2-3 step by step guide in the book to overcoming fear.
What it does do is shine a light in the dark corners where fear lurks. It’s much easier to deal with it when you can ‘see’ it within yourself.
In 2005 I took part in the London Marathon. For 6 months I read books about Marathon training
but it wasn’t until I actually started lacing up my shoes each day and getting out there that I overcame my inbuilt inertia/fear (which is, apparently, strong!).
I have been so ‘left-brain’ for so long – and so many of my careers have required me to follow protocols without question…finance work, flying….. I don’t know whether that makes it doubly hard for me, but I have struggled to even find the box I am supposed to poke!
Writing is my solution. Not 10 articles on diabetes but actual writing – fiction. It’s exercising the other side of my brain and strengthening the more rational parts of my mind for when the fear driven reptile appears. Of course, getting to the point where I offer up this writing for public consumption is going to be the equivalent of the marathon for me……… I guess dealing with it is a work in progress.
One thing I will say is that I found Mark Levy‘s book ‘Accidental Genius’ also reviewed here, to be one of the few books that got me started. I read lots of books, sometimes refelect on their content, sometimes even review them (!) but Mark’s book I read and re-read and then do soemthing about what I have read. I’d definitely suggest that as a next step.
Thanks for stopping by
Dee
Oh Allison, ain’t that the truth.
And, the first person to comment on any of my book reviews ‘wins’ a copy of the book in question or, if they have the book already, a voucher to the same value. Please let me know which you’d prefer as your comment was logged first and if you’d like a voucher whether amazon, The Book Depository or Fishpond is best for you.
Thank you for dropping by.
Thank you for such a detailed reply – I’ll have a look at Accidental Genius while I’m at it… get the feeling that a book shopping spree is on the horizon!
Great review as ever, thanks Dee
This notion of “shipping” is transferable to every single part of our lives – be it business or personal. It translates to all of those actions that we want or need to take be it launching a product or service; embarking on a course of self-improvement or learning a new skill; it even translates to getting out of or into relationships. We are always our biggest hurdle to get over!
Fear and stress are the first issues that I address at the start of every new training programme I deploy, with refreshers throughout the course. In order to get the maximum from the learning process, you have to be completely open, and at ease. You cannot be that way with those barriers in place. The fear of failure, the fear of feeling stupid, the fear of trying something new and heightened stress levels that go hand in hand with those need dispelling. I learned to dispel these things via some harsh life lessons, but I don’t think you need to do it that way. Once you recognise that you have those barriers it is easier to start working on them. The problem is of course recognising them in the first place, it requires an amount of self-perception; often you have to have guidance to make the initial association between your actions or lack thereof and our fears.
I know I will sometimes fail, I know I will sometimes succeed, I don’t mind being perceived as daft or silly on occasions, and I certainly don’t get defensive when people don’t agree with or dislike my opinions because after all they are just my opinions/points of view. That doesn’t mean that I have gone to the other extreme of not caring at all what others think!
Seth is right; you need to get the thrashing sorted out upfront. We need the initial debate with others and ourselves – it is what helps us make the best decisions/provide the best solutions and of course doing it upfront saves a huge amount of money and time in the end.
It is another good read from Seth and as usual it makes you stop, reflect on your actions, and then encourages you to take positive action.
Kittie
Thank you for leaving such a thoughtful, open and honest comment here.
It’s fascinating to me to discover how much of an issue this is for so many. I think the circles we mix in online give a perhaps false impression of confidence levels!
D xx
Thanks Dee, what a lovely surprise. I don’t have Poke The Box; Amazon or Book Depository works for me (and now that Amazon owns BD I guess we are talking about the same people
Thanks again