How To Solve Problems Better Than 99% of People | Seth Godin

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
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**Seth Godin** (0:26)
Why do we become mediocre? The first one is deniability. What we end up with is saying, I am attached to coming up with an idea that everyone is going to love being reassured that nothing bad is going to happen. If I can be guaranteed those two things, then I'll go do it and that's why most people would rather be mediocre.

**Codie Sanchez** (0:43)
My guest today is Seth Godin. You're going to hear how Seth survived 800 rejection letters in a single year, and that led him to now writing 21 books, multiple bestsellers. We're going to steal his self-belief so that you can use it for yourself today. Winners are actually quitters, as long as it's strategic quitting.

**Seth Godin** (1:01)
Quitting isn't failing. What's failing is sticking with something that's not working and not making me happy. Quitting is a chance to invest in the thing that I ought to be doing next.

**Codie Sanchez** (1:10)
Is there one single belief that helps to cure mediocrity in most people?

**Seth Godin** (1:16)
Well, I have a mantra, which is...

**Codie Sanchez** (1:21)
I want to talk about your insane work ethic, which I've admired for so many years. You've published a blog post every single day for, I believe, 26 years, often two to three times a day. That's like some public math, 10,000 posts, maybe more than 3 million words. It puts you among the most prolific creators, I think, of all time, Picasso, Casey Neistat with his millions of videos, if you want to go a little bit more common, Beeple, 17 years of daily art. I guess my first question is, what does hitting publish every single day teach you, and why do you do that?

**Seth Godin** (1:54)
I don't think of a work ethic being like this. I have a craft ethic. I have a posture of sharing the work because I think it's worthwhile.
The thing is, I made a decision once, and then I don't have to make it again. There's going to be a blog post for me tomorrow, not because it's the best blog post I ever wrote, but because it's Thursday, and that changes everything. Because if you know there's going to be a blog post tomorrow, when you go to sleep tonight, that's what you're going to be thinking about. Habits create who we are, and what I found was re-litigating each decision was enervating, was undermining me. But if I can show up and say, this is my craft, here I made this, then it becomes who I want to be.

**Codie Sanchez** (2:45)
I guess, let's say there's somebody listening right now, and this somebody could be me on many days. But when you don't want to do something, you have that deep in your veins, please, I would rather do anything else in the world except the thing I know I need to do.
What would you tell them, or what do you tell yourself?

**Seth Godin** (3:05)
Well, I think it's helpful to break it into pieces. Right?
Is it common for you to not want to do the thing you have to do? Because if that's the case, then it's not the thing. It's the have to part that you re- right? That people who go on vacation and do things that they just paid a lot of money to do that are supposed to be fun, but if that was their job, they would hate it. So that's part of what's going on here. And we can talk about what are the trades we make to solve problems. What are the trades we make to create the thing we want to build.
Or it could be that you're engaging with something toxic, and there's something in your system that's saying don't do that. And I had a young friend who took karate lessons, and after three weeks, he said they yell at me and they hit me. Now some people think that's fine. He did not. Don't take karate lessons, right? If it's making you sick to negotiate to win in certain settings, small claims court or whatever it is, then don't. Because you only get tomorrow once, you don't get a chance to do it over again.