Seth Godin Quotes

Encourage members of your team to take the initiative and act on their own.

I do less waiting by the phone than anyone I know in the business. I don't wait for a job. I just go on to my own work.

Don't wait for someone to tell you what to do. Develop an innovative solution and work as a team to make it happen.

I definitely feel like I'm at that point where it's nice to not have to sit at home and wait to be invited to the party, but to be creating work for yourself.

One philosophy I have at AngelList is I would rather have someone working on the wrong thing and do it their way and be motivated, than working on the right thing and do it my way and not be motivated.

Typically, my advice to young artists is not to wait for someone to allow you to do the thing. Just do the thing, and they'll catch up.

You've got to be able to think on your own; you've got to be creative. You can't be willing to take a backseat.

I've never been the guy to sit back and wait until someone approved something I was passionate about.

I think I've always been a follow-the-leader with my career, or maybe waiting for things to happen. Now I'm like, I'm OK-I know the direction, whoever's on board can go with me.

Be a creator, not a reactor.

Don’t do it because it’s your job, do it because you can.

You can't always wait for the guys at the top. Every manager at every level in the organization has an opportunity, big or small, to do something. Every manager's got some sphere of autonomy. Don't pass the buck up the line.

I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod.

Men who do things without being told draw the most wages.

Initiative is doing the right things without being told.

I've stepped more into my business and really... taken control for how I want that to be.

Is it important to have a crew behind me? No, it's important to have me behind them. That's how I look at it. You can't just roll with a situation like you're depending on somebody to help you. You're supposed to help the situation, whatever the situation is that you're in.

I want to be surprised by what people do, I don't want to work with people who need to be told what to do. I want people to show me what they've got.

If you want something, you can't wait for someone to make it happen for you.

Sometimes if you want to see a change for the better, you have to take things into your own hands.

Initiative is doing the right thing without being told.

Just imagine how fast, innovative and excellent your business will be once every single teammate - from the janitor to the executive - begins to see themselves as the CEO of their own area of responsibility.

Years ago I learned to be totally responsible for Dionne Warwick. I will not wait for opportunities. I will create them.

Every person who ever had a plan to do anything, and went and did it, or who laid his plan before others, and won their co-operation to do it with him, without going to external authorities to please do the thing for them, was a direct actionist.

You can be like a thermometer, just reflecting the world around you. Or you can be a thermostat, one of those people who sets the temperature.