Seth Godin in Antwerpen. I want a refund :)

I´m sitting on a train from Antwerpen to Brussels writing this post. I came to the Hall of Queen Elisabeth in Antwerpen just to hear Seth Godin speak. And now I´m returning back home to Oslo. Reflecting if my trip was a waste of time and money so that I could do some name dropping afterwards or was there a real value for me.

I read most of the books that Seth Godin wrote. I read his last one – “Linchpin” the same day it was available on my kindle and the idea from this book (as well as his another book Tribes) was the main topic this evening. The idea of us breaking away from our “factory work” to do the work that really matters. The idea of finding you true passion and to creating experiences for other people around it. To lead the tribe of people who shares the same passion to a place where they want to go.

I highly recommend you to read both books in full for a more persuasive copy, but I can tell you that this were these books that influenced me enough to make up the time (it is Easter holiday after all), to book flight to Brussels, take a train to Antwerpen just to hear Seth speaking for a couple of hours.

I can tell you the truth I did not hear anything new. That is why the name of this post. But I can also tell you that I´m inspired (once again, hehe) and maybe this is the kick I needed to actually do something. Seth didn´t say anything I did not know from before. No secret knowledge, no broadening of the theme (the book of cause covers more than an hour speech). I already knew the stuff he was talking about. And at the same time knowing does not equal doing. During Seth talk I suddenly realized that I don´t need more listening, I don´t need more theory, I´ve got enough. Just go do it.

So to make it clear, I do not regret a single cent or single minute spent to see Seth Godin speak tonight.
He is a great speaker, the topic is interesting. It was good seeing so many people in the audience. And it was beautiful Q&A at the end. Here is what I remember from it:

About discipline.
One guy from the audience said that he was reading Seths blog for a while and he really admires the regularity of his blog posts. And Seth answered that he did not miss a day for a long time. He also said:
Start a blog. Everybody should have one. Do a post every day and after a year you´ve got 365 of them. It´s a great thing for you even if nobody is reading it.

After a short discussion on politics and our education system a lady asked how Seth would change our schools?
The answer went like changing the system takes longer but all of us can teach our kids at home. And we should teach them two things:
1. To solve interesting problems
2. To lead
Because both things are scarcity in todays world.

One more guy like me has been coming from Munich to hear Seth speak. He said he was expecting kind of a roadmap about how to become an artist doing things that matters. And he did not get any.
Seth offered him a refund ;). He said that there is no map. If there were everybody should already been there. You should just start doing something that matters. Nobody knows the way, nobody can tell you what to do. But it happens that you get a hint from yourself. That is when your lizard brain kicks in. When you get scared of doing something, when the resistance in you arises and you are afraid. Then you maybe onto something. Do the things that scare you, overcome the resistance and maybe you wake up an artist one day.