The manifesto discusses seven "levers" which allow people to achieve success. I've summarized three of these below.
One of the levers Seth Godin mentions in “Brainwashed” is
what he calls “Acknowledging the Lizard”. According to Godin, the “lizard” is
the part of our brain which fears embarrassment and failure. This portion of
our mind, which he says has been present since pre-historic man, keeps us from
reaching our full creative potential by embarrassing into conformity. Another
of Godin’s levers is “connecting”, which is going out of your way to create an
actual personal connection to your consumers through the use of social media as
opposed to treating them as tally marks in your list of followers. It also
entails truly interacting with the consumer to create a more viable product and
a more personal brand. A third lever of Godin’s is “Being Generous” which goes
hand-in-hand with “connecting”, generously providing services and gifts to
build said connections and increase your personal brand’s worth.
The levers I’ve summarized above strike me, largely due to
their similarity to the manifesto delivered by one of my biggest professional
inspirations: Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary’s latest book, The Thank You Economy
is all about creating generous connections with consumers in order to receive
feedback, build brand loyalty, and become a more socially conscious content
producer. His previous book, Crush It, discussed “acknowledging the
lizard” extensively stating that with the right amount of stubbornness,
self-awareness, and capacity for embarrassment anyone can start a profitable business
based on their passion.
Reading various professionals opinions and methods in this
vein always inspires me as a student and as an artist. I think there’s a lot to
be said about those who have achieved personal success and are willing to offer
up their personal attitudes and strategies to those aspiring to be their
competition. Reading these kinds of manifestos and evaluating them helps me to
create my own attitudes toward success, creativity, and the “social web” environment
our field is creating. People like Godin and Vaynerchuk have rode in on the
first wave of this revolution, but they are more than willing to admit that the
tide is building and it will be my generation which ultimately rides the
biggest waves of this new phenomenon.
Keeping that in mind, I try to acquire as much advice as I
can from these “trailblazers” and “trendsetters” as I can, because I know that
I’ll shortly be launched into the same troubled waters they’re traversing. Its
inspiring to see their success, but it also motivates me to one-up them and do
it bigger and better than they ever dreamed. These stories are becoming
increasingly common, and each one is more inspiring than the others, but they
all share the same common threads Godin outlines in his manifesto. Seeing these
commonalities gives me a roadmap to follow in my pursuit of similar success in
my own projects.
In order to succeed in the Thank You Economy I need to: acknowledge
my own personal lizard, create art, build connections, be generous, crush it,
ship it, and keep those caring about those connections. This becomes
increasingly clear to me with every new social network launched, every online
retailer that goes public, and each YouTube superstar who records a successful
single or becomes a red carpet host at an award show.
In that regard, I think that these exercises are immensely
beneficial to me as a student, artist, and even as a person in this day and
age.
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