Posted by Seth has published 17 books and has the number one blog in marketing, according to Ad Age Power.
Here are Seth’s 10 Golden Rules for Your Success.
1: Do it Your Way. Seth has a blog but until very recently he didn’t have a podcast. He still doesn’t have Twitter. Or video. Or even comments on his blog. Seth decided that it would just be him and his blog, one post per day, and we wasn’t going to pay attention to what other people told him he was ‘supposed’ to be doing. As he says, you don’t have to like his blog, but it’s the only one like it because he did it his way instead of copying what others are doing.
Seth has chosen not to focus on his blog stats, either, because he doesn’t want to work towards having a more popular blog. Instead he wants to receive the kind of emails that say, “I’ve been reading your blog for six weeks and look what I changed in my life. Thank you for inspiring me to do that.”
2: Tell Your Story. Tell a story that resonates with your audience. People remember stories that match the way they want to see the world. When Seth meets small-business people, he’s not interested in their balance sheet. He wants to know their story.
Why should the customer pick you? Why should the customer care about what you’re doing? 2% better than your competitor doesn’t win you the business. Having your own unique story that sets you apart from everyone else does.
3: Be Patiently Impatient. Or perhaps impatiently patient. Do what you have to do to succeed and do it fast if at all possible. But realize that success can take time.
You set up a brand new social media channel in no time at all, but no one is using it – should you close it down and do something else? It took Twitter 2 years to catch on. Imagine if they had given up after a few weeks or months.
4: Refuse to Settle for Average. Anyone can be average, and any business can be average. But what’s the point? No one has ever said, “Oooh, that business is so average, let’s use them!”
You can choose to stand out in your field, or you can choose to create an entirely new field. Either one works.
5: Your Product is Your Marketing. Did Google advertise? Did Facebook, Amazon or eBay advertise? No. But what they did do is make something people talked about.
If you can come up with a profitable idea that gets people talking then you’ll never have to advertise.
6: Spread Your Ideas. Hold your idea close, tell no one and soon you’ll see another business using that very same idea to make their next fortune. “Hey, they stole that idea from me,” you’ll say.
Nope. Ideas are everywhere and your ideas are not exclusive to you. Other people are having the exact same great idea you’re having. That’s why when you have a great idea, you should act upon it immediately and spread it in such a way that people take notice and pass it forward to others.
7: Choose Carefully. There are an infinite number of things you could be doing now, tomorrow, next week. And there are an almost infinite number of businesses you can start, choices to make, roads to follow… choose carefully.
But once you choose something, don’t second guess your choice.
8: Life is a Series of Dips and Rises. Things won’t always work out perfectly. You might make a mistake so big it looks like things are over.
But as long as you get back up one more time than you fall, you’ll be better than okay.
9: Navigate without a Map. Going to work for one company and retiring there 40 years later is what your grandpa did, not you. For the last 2 -3 decades, Fortune 500 companies have created zero jobs.
The future is being built by people like you – entrepreneurs. There are no rule books and no maps, except for this one: Help others get what they want and you can get what you want.
10: Create Something Remarkable. Remarkable means quite literally, something worth remarking about. Something worth telling others. A black and white cow is not remarkable, but a purple one is.
Be the purple cow.