Seth Godin live at the Salt Palace
This afternoon Seth Godin stopped by Salt Lake City to promote his new book The Dip, currently #8 on the New York Times bestseller list.
I'd been looking forward to this event for some time, and was happily in attendance. This was one of the more effective book tours I have been aware of. Rather than sitting at a table next to a stack of books at Barnes & Noble, Seth marketed one of his greatest assets--his public speaking ability--and billed the event as a speaking engagement, with a door fee of $50. Oh, and by the way, we each got 5 "free" books. Why 5? So we would read one and give four away. This is a brilliant marketing tactic, but like everything that makes Seth so good, this wasn't trickery--simply an effective way of communicating a solid product, where all parties involved would benefit.
Seth used his hour speech to expound about the concept of The Dip, and to respond to audience questions.
Seth began by observing that there is a shortage of superstars. Superstars, unlike the rest of us, don't need to advertise themselves. People come to them. Pixar doesn't put out an ad when they're looking for the head animator of their next film--they approach a superstar.
However, there are all sorts of niches that are in a superstar vacuum, many opportunities for people to be the best in the world. For instance, you can be the best newpaper boy in the city of Orem, UT, or the best baker on Center Street, or the best 3D free-form modeling software in industrial design.
So why do people stop short of doing their best--why isn't everyone the best in the world, instead of having so many average people?
Because of The Dip, says Seth Godin.
Before every big upside, there is a dip, and too many people don't know when to stick it out and when to quit.
What makes this difficult is that really successful people quit all the time--they just know when to quit and when to push through.
I'll let you read Seth's book to get all of his insights about evaluating dips, but one significant one is to do your best to judge the size of the dip before you start something. Count the cost. Then you won't be surprised at how long it takes to get through it.
