Reinvent Yourself

My marketing guru Seth Godin says that we have to reinvent ourselves because the system is bent on keeping us average, reliable, safe and just doing the easy stuff. Working for "the man" makes you just another clog in the wheel of the bland. His call--and I guess it's mine, as well--is that it's time to do the amazing and the outrageous, to create real art and change things. Here are his levers for reinventing yourself:

1. Connect: Digital media can offer you a chance to make real connections, to earn permission and gain insights from people you’d never have a chance to interact with any other way. 2. Be Generous: The generosity economy rewards people who create and participate in circles of gifts. 3. Make Art: If you interact with others, you have the platform to create something new—something that changes everything. I call that art. 4. Fight the Lizard Brain: It’s the part of our brain that worries about safety and dishes out anger. Being laughed at is the lizard brain’s worst nightmare. And so it shuts down our art. 5. Ship: If you can get something out the door while your competitors cringe in fear, you win. 6. Fail: The reinvention of the marketplace demands that one have the ability to fail, often and with grace—and in public! 7. Learn: School isn’t over. School is now. School is blogs and experiments and experiences and the constant failure of shipping and learning.