Business Book Review: The Practice by Seth Godin

If you’re hoarding an idea or your creative work, The Practice is for you. Focus on the only part you can control - creating and shipping.

My Rating: ★★★★

Length: 272 pages

Publisher: Penguin

Released: 2020

Key Takeaways for Personal Branding

The legendary Seth Godin delivers another manual for entrepreneurs and visionaries.

His message is clear - commit to practice. Not the output, but the input - the part you can control. But, don’t simply hoard the fruits of your practice, ship your work.

Ship Creative Work

As Godin highlights, why ‘ship creative work’?

• Ship - because it doesn’t count if you don’t share it.

• Creative - because you’re not a cog in a system, you’re a creator, a problem solver and a generous leader.

• Work - because whether or not you’re paid for it, pursue it like a professional.

With the continuous cycle of creating and shipping, resistance and fear become disempowered.

Instead of aiming to create a masterpiece, focus on the smallest unit of your genius.

When it comes to your personal brand, you may want to write a best-seller. Or pursue another creative equivalent in your field. But, why not start by just writing. Write one blog post, and then another.

The goal is not perfection, but consistency.

Consistency over Authenticity

As ‘authenticity’ starts to feel like an over-hyped buzzword, Godin’s perspective is refreshingly unique.

Your audience doesn’t want your authentic voice. They want your consistent voice.

You don’t want an “authentic” heart surgeon, you want a consistent one. Authenticity is not an excuse for your bad days or not doing what you don’t feel like that day. Consistency in your personal brand is more important.

Favourite Quotes

The practice is not the means to the output, the practice is the output, because the practice is all we can control.

Identity fuels action, and action creates habits, and habits are part of a practice, and a practice is the single best way to get to where you seek to go.

Blog every day. It’s easy, it’s free, and it establishes your identity long before the market cares about who you are and what you do.

Everyone has a voice in their head, and every one of those voices is different.

When was the last time you did something for the first time?

Problems have solutions. That’s what makes them problems. A problem without a solution isn’t a problem, it’s simply a situation.

The practice requires you to seek out this experience of uncertainty, to place yourself in the room where you will create discomfort.

The Practice is another instalment in the unique perspective only Godin gives. If you’ve ever struggled to hit publish, Godin is your guide. To feel the fear, and ship it anyway.

The Practice by Seth Godin: Available on Amazon.