Product Description

More provocative business thinking from the bestselling author of Purple Cow and All Marketers Are Liars

As one of today’s most influential business thinkers, Seth Godin helps his army of fans stay focused, stay connected, and stay dissatisfied with the status quo, the ordinary, the boring. His books, blog posts, magazine articles, and speeches have inspired countless entrepreneurs, marketing people, innovators, and managers around the world.

Now, for the first time, Godin has collected the most provocative short pieces from his pioneering blog—ranked #70 by Feedster (out of millions published) in worldwide readership. This book also includes his most popular columns from Fast Company magazine, and several of the short e-books he has written in the last few years.

A sample:
• Bon Jovi And The Pirates
• Christmas Card Spam
• Clinging To Your Job Title?
• How Much Would You Pay to Be on Oprah’s Show?
• The Persistence of Really Bad Ideas
• The Seduction of “Good Enough”
• What Happens When It's All on Tape?
• Would You Buy Life Insurance at a Rock Concert?

Small is the New Big is a huge bowl of inspiration that you can gobble in one sitting or dip into at any time. As Godin writes in his introduction: “I guarantee that you'll find some ideas that don’t work for you. But I’m certain that you're smart enough to see the stuff you’ve always wanted to do, buried deep inside one of these riffs. And I’m betting that once inspired, you’ll actually make something happen.”

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7900 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In what's likely to be the next in a string of bestselling marketing guides (after Purple Cow), Godin compiles entries from his popular blog. Many are only a few paragraphs long, though he also adds longer entries, from his Fast Company column, to the mix. The pieces are arranged alphabetically by title rather than chronologically, leading to occasional choppiness, but Godin's ability to hone in on key issues remains intact. Following up on the themes of his earlier books, he reminds readers that the first key to successful marketing is to produce something remarkable and let it grow. "If your idea is great, people will find you," he advises. "[I]f your target audience isn't listening, it's not their fault, it's yours." He urges people to take control of their creative lives by taking responsibility for tough decisions and pushing themselves to make bolder choices. (His advice to McDonald's, for example, includes free wireless Web access at every restaurant.) The appendix contains two lengthy essays on Web design and blogs that were previously distributed as e-books. These are a more polished than the casual main entries, but still exhibit the spontaneous energy that has earned Godin so many loyal fans. (Aug. 17)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
This audiobook will last all year, or perhaps, a lifetime. Godin is a skilled and dynamic presenter, and his originality and spontaneous style come across perfectly in audio. SMALL is truly a catalog of ideas from Godin's books, PERMISSION MARKETING and THE PURPLE COW, and his blog, as well as articles in FAST COMPANY. It's alphabetized by topic, and SMALL's subtitle, "Riffs, Rants, etc.," tells you what to expect. Godin kindly says, "Don't listen to this program all at once. It will give you a headache." True enough, even short listening hits may well spur listeners to absorb a kernel of an idea that could lead to remarkable things. Godin's enthusiast-self is the perfect irreverent marketer of his own ideas. Whether two sentences or 20 minutes, the topics provide thought exercise for anyone interested in the culture of innovation. R.F.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Godin, author and business blogger, presents a collection of essays that are thoughtful and wise. His ideas are skillfully presented with themes that include being big is no longer an advantage, so act small if you want to be big; with instant communication, lies get exposed faster than ever; consumers are more powerful than ever; and Aretha Franklin is correct: respect is the secret to success with people. His comments on business schools are challenging and contain his list of five things that help people succeed, including finding, hiring, and managing extraordinary people; embracing a changing world while effectively prioritizing tasks in it; and the ability to sell. Readers skip his riff on Web design and strategy at their peril. Along with his definition of velocity--a company's ability to zig and zag and zoom or change with speed--Godin tells us, "Give me five serially incompetent executives with a focus on velocity, and I can change the world." Excellent. Mary Whaley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Not Business as Usual
If you are looking for some ideas to jump start your creative juices, take the few hours necessary to breeze thru this collection of blog posting from Seth Godin, blogger extraordinaire and seller of confidence for those needing to step outside their box. You do not need to have read his best-seller, "Purple Cow", or even be your company's marketing chief to find useful ideas and some interesting perspectives on inconsistencies that show-up in our everyday business transactions or even personal interactions.

Being someone who promotes personal responsibility in organizational process, I loved his statement, "...anonymity as the enemy of civility...", and thus transparency and accountability as the answer to email spam or telemarketers. And, I loved it when he wrote "benchmarks = mediocrity": If everyone is doing the same thing; it delivers, by definition, average performance. I doubt that you will agree with every one of his opinions, as expressed in these 183 blog postings, but you will surely find enough to make this book a keepers; or, as I shall do, something to pass along to a friend or relative.

Dennis DeWilde, author of "The Performance Connection"

Short and sweet nuggets of inspiration
I love the "short and sweet" format - this is the perfect opportunity to browse someone else's brain for ideas!
I read this over about 6 months, picking it up and reading one or two "rants" at a time. I found these thought-provoking, with sufficient detail for me to know what he was going on enough, but without boring me with detail and examples. Several topics triggered great ideas which I've thought through, developed, and run with in the days after reading.
Highly recommended.

wow thats a lot of info
Not that Seth needs another glowing review...This book is great. Read the introduction and follow the isntructions for how to read the book. Every segment is something worth taking to the copier and distributing to coworkers. Here is an idea: start your own company and experiment with all the cool nuggets in the book, you might fail but it will be fun.