Thoughtful Thursday - price vs. value

"Maybe the reason it seems that price is all your customers care about ...
... is that you haven't given them anything else to care about."

Conversation by Seth Godin, Care Bear Collection from halo969 on Flickr

Thoughtful Thursday - who are we letting judge us?

"Here's the mistake we make in high school:

We let anyone, just anyone, judge our work (and by extension, judge us).....

The cheerleaders are deputized as the Supreme Court of social popularity and the gym teacher forever has dibs on whether or not we're macho enough to make it in the world.

These are patterns we sign up for, and they last forever (or until we tell them to go away).

...the ability to choose who judges your work ... is the key building block in becoming an artist in whatever you do."

Conversation by Seth; The Honorable Hound print by HoundTracks

Thoughtful Thursday - spending money on what is important to us

"The new trend in spending money is to buy things that are painstakingly hand built instead of efficiently mass produced.

It might not be a better price than what you could buy at Target, but the very fact that you can pay for an artisan to create it, an artist to design it, a talented worker to bring it to life - that act makes a powerful statement about what you can afford and what's important to you.

Instead of a bigger house, it's a house that's built from scratch by craftsmen.

Instead of a bigger steak, it's a handmade dish of local poached vegetables..."

If you are making a living making things this is a pretty exciting conversation and if you are a human being concerned with the conspicuous consumption of consumer goods it is a conversation worth celebrating.

Conversation by Seth Godin, Letterpress by StarShapedPress

Thoughtful Thursday - oh yes, you can

ust about everything worth doing is worth doing because it's important and because the odds are against you.

If they weren't, then anyone could do it, so don't bother.

Conversation by Seth Goden, Photograph by Adi Levy (of his mom)