A Song for Seth Godin

The four and half months I spent with Seth Godin in 2009 changed my life.  The experience shook me to the core and scared the crap out of me. It woke me up to how irrational fear (lizard brain) cripples my projects. It woke me up to the possibility that I can actually make a difference and commit to something great, something that matters.

It sounds lovely, but it's actually been frightening to realize my potential. It's hard to commit to making a difference.  It's much easier being lost in a dream of myself as somone who would let Seth Godin down, as someone who has nothing remarkable to give.  And despite how inspiring that time in New York was for me, I came home to Atlanta still lost in a sea of too many choices, except this time I was aware of the waves, the rudder and the captain at the helm.  

When things got tough during the production of my band's new record, it was much easier to go do something else. And many times, I did. Over and over and over again. 

Seth lays out his final takeaways from SAMBA in this blog. There he writes, "If you're stuck, getting unstuck is not only possible, it's an obligation."  

My band released our record today at 3pm. We shipped. I consider this record launch getting "un-stuck". I also wrote a song about my experience following Seth's Alternative MBA (SAMBA) and include it on the record.  Here, have a listen...

Thank you, Seth. And thank you to my friends from SAMBA, whose work over the years inspires me to keep going, to not give up and to take responsibility for steering the boat myself. Love y'all. 

Comments

[Onitsuka Tiger]

Don't worry too much about the ambiguous future, just make effort for explicit being present.Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well.

[Air Force 1]

Time management is really a misnomer - the challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves.A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.

[Emily Kate Boyd]

Thank you for your comments. Bless you both.

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[Megan Elizabeth Morris]

Emily, this is *incredible*. I love the song and I love the album, and I just picked it up. You make amazing music! I'm so pleased to have found these.

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[Shazvie]

I think I'll join in the discussion. Better own up, this is a new forum for me, so I don't know what sort of eaethd debate there has been.When I began blogging in 2005, I was terrible careful about my poems. I feared that if I published them (gave them away for free) no mainstream publisher would ever be interested. I carried on writing poems, frequently. I made hardly any effort to submit them for publication. I sorta parked that issue after all the poems wouldn't make me any money anyway.Gradually I realised I had a huge collection building up and they were known only to a few who heard me read live in Cork & Limerick, plus close collaborators who helped me. By not publishing my poems on my blog, I was achieving nothing: the poems were gathering dust.I can't write with confidence about fiction, I've written little of it. I've given away a huge epic poem on my blog recently in bits (72 blogposts). That's free but few want to read it on a blog they prefer to dip into bits and thereby taste what'll be on offer when I charge for it.The free is great. The same stuff in another form may sell. The novel in bits on a blog generates a following, especially if you use Twitter and/or Facebook to foster a community of interest around it.I don't know if this is a helpful contribution to the debate but I thank you for the opportunity to practise writing.

[Briella]

Thanks for that. Good topic and article.Who is this lucky bitch, this cietmtopion person? I'll kill her! : )I think Stephen King's marketing strategy failed somewhat when he sold his stuff online originally, but that was many moons ago.Are you a raving loon if you put your work out there for free? Is it counterproductive? I'd argue that it actually hasn't really been done properly a handful of bloggers (the Salam (sp???) Pax fellow from Iraq (if he's published at all), Belle du Jour, any one of a number who've been fired from jobs, and a bunch of home workers with kids) have had success in publishing too, yes?But is the fact that nobody in fiction has gone from freebie online to pay for print, with Dan Brown or JK Rowling levels of success, a reason not to give it a bash?The publishers do go to an awful lot of trouble. But those drawn to a site are not necessarily going to buy a book, and vice versa. I dunno. You have the wisdom of it never having worked against the giving it a bash attitude coz it's never been done. I see Cecelia Ahern has a few short stories on her site (at least she did last year, or links to same). And it's nearly rare for authors to not have the opening chapter of a work on their site or elsewhere, if they have a web presence.But with the online stuff, you do have quality control you're judging something that you're getting for free, as against something you've parted with your cash for. Time for another heated debate!

[Angela]

If I was Annie Proulx, if we're to cite her as an example (and what tlitle I know of her work), and people were showing an interest coz of Brokeback Mountain (back when the film was released), I'd put the most mind-blowing story from that collection on my/her site, stating that you could also get BB Mountain in the same collection. And then people have heard two singles in two different forms, and they might want to buy the whole album .Also, even blurbs and first chapters; there was one of hers, Postcards, I think. The first chapter or two would suffice to stimulate interest on the site. I don't mean this as a criticism but really, very tlitle happens thereafter throughout a beautifully written work (which is a tragic aspect of the characters and maybe the novel as a whole). I'm talking parp coz it was so long ago, but the first couple of chapters available online wouldn't harm sales there either.And I would happily be one of those people trying to flog my books on the street. Just watch me.

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Thanks for making the pattern available so quickly. Hm, maybe I can re-prioritize some projects. Who am I fooling? I'm going to go buy more yarn