To Build The Future You’re Yearning For, Think Strategy

Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great

By Rodger Dean Duncan

One might wonder if Seth Godin, one of the world’s most influential business thinkers, ever sleeps.

He’s the author of 21 bestsellers that have changed the way people think about work and other important issues. Those books have been translated into 38 languages.

He’s given five TED talks and writes one of the most popular daily blogs in the world. He’s the former vice president of Direct Marketing at Yahoo! and the founder of the altMBA, Squidoo, Yoyodyne, and the Akimbo workshops. He volunteers with non-profits and start-up entrepreneurs around the globe.

Like I say, one might wonder if Seth ever sleeps.

His latest book is This is Strategy: Make Better Plans.

Do you like quick doses of paradigm-stretching thoughts on managing your work? This book is for you. Do you need help understanding and influencing the systems that shape your world? This book is for you. Do you want fresh ideas on making smart decisions and prioritizing long-term thinking over instant gratification? Ditto.

This book is gratifyingly easy to read, so much so that it doesn’t even have page numbers. It consists of nearly 300 of Seth’s thought-provoking brainstorms that challenge you to think about strategy in fresh ways. (You don’t need to count them. They’re numbered.)

How does he differentiate between strategy and tactics, and why is it so common for people to confuse the two?

“Strategy is about the future, it’s a philosophy of becoming. Tactics are a plan, sure to work if we do them right,” Seth says. “The problem with tactics is that when the world changes, they cease to work. Western Union used tactics to win the telegraph wars, but was destroyed by AT&T when the world responded to their innovation.”

Seth says that if you need a guarantee that you’ll be right, you’re unlikely to innovate. “But when you find an elegant strategy, the systems around you work in your favor, and you can lead instead of follow.”

In Seth’s view, what exactly are “systems,” and what role do they play in a strategy?