Do you deserve it?
Marketing Guru / All-Round Guru Seth Godin seems to be in the business of regularly handing my ass back to me. Whether on his blog or in books that he has authored or co-authored, like The Big Moo he reaches this Goldilocks-like balancing point of common sense, wisdom, shame-on-you, and inspiration.
In his today’s post entitled Do you deserve it, he reinforces the fact that it’s not about egos, reputations; it’s not even about intelligence or ability – It’s about results.
Tags: Seth Godin
March 3rd, 2009 at 11:24 pm
The caption “Do you deserve it?” does not commenting on anyone’s success or capabilities however it is pointing out that people who are successful do they really reached there by their own efforts or it is with the help of someone else who made them so popular and successful.
Karen Walter
March 9th, 2009 at 9:58 am
So if I pick my nose, which requires no intelligence, but could affect my ego & reputation if done in public, but requires very little ability since infants can do this, should I be happy w/ the end result? Not. To get the desired result you need ego so you don’t fail and should be concerned about your reputation to maintain an ethical base and you need some ability or intelligence to get the desired result of what your attempting to derive the result from. This guru must be on the side that awards trophies to all, winners and losers alike.
March 9th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Not at all!
Although, by a literal reading of my summary, you might get that impression. I didn’t mean egos & reputations in the way you describe. Although what you say makes so much sense also.
By reputation, I mean coat-tails: Seth could say, “Well I’m a fancy big-shot writer who frequently hits the bestseller list, so I don’t have to work so hard anymore”, but he keeps trying to refine his ideas.
By ego, I mean egotistical: Seth could say, “Well I’m a fancy big-shot writer who frequently hits the bestseller list, so I don’t have to take the time to talk to ‘ordinary’ people”, but one time, when I emailed (he puts it right on his website) him to question his logic in a blog post, he wrote back a real response. Name a celebrity or CEO that answers letters, emails or phone calls.
One way to look at is this:
It doesn’t matter that if it was extensive skills, hard work, good looks or dumb luck that has given me a an important place & a voice in a company that was started 18 years before I was born.
Just as, at this point, it really doesn’t matter how or why Jeffrey Skilling came to head Enron. What matters is that Jeffrey Skilling made poor choices, crashed & burned (which incidentally cost 20,000 workers their jobs).
So, as Seth said:
A person can end up in an advantageous position they didn’t deserve, but it doesn’t matter – they can use that position to do whatever is right when the time comes to do it. A person can end up homeless & hopeless after a lifetime of hard work, but (in the practical sense) it doesn’t matter. What you do next, does matter.
Therefore, live life like it matters – or fail.