Seth Godin

Starting anything is easy, but once you start, there is going to be a lot of work required to achieve any kind of success. Once you realize what kind of work is required, you have to make a decision on whether you are willing to go through with it. If the answer is no, then it's a good time to quit.

It's a myth that winners never quit. Instead, winners quit a lot and quite often. You have to allow yourself to quit.

Chris recommends that you read a book by Seth Godin called The Dip for more information on the topic of quitting.

"We began with software being our tool, a tool to help us do our work. But over time, we have become software's tool. We exist to enable software to reach its goals, and its goals are to turn us into paying subscribers who keep making more stuff that enables the network to thrive." - Seth Godin.

The architecture of software is significantly more complex vs. a physical product because the designer does not know exactly what a user might want to do, given there are so many options.

However, instead of spending time on the craftsmanship, designers and engineers are encouraged to make decisions in favor of speed and ability to share a product, leading to poor software.

Software products don't cost nearly as much as many traditional products, and as a result companies need a lot of users to buy in, in order to make a profit.

Once users start to share their software with one another, it creates a lock-in, where all future users have less and less need to seek an alternative product, as all of theirs friends and colleges are already using the established brand.

This mean that by focusing on how well a product can be shared, instead of how well it could be architected, increases adoption, and therefore leads to defensibility and profits for their creators.

Seth speculates that frequent buying cycle force companies to updates products such that consumers maintain brand-loyalty.

For example, while the operating system of the car has not changed in 100 years, every couple of years many of us choose to start over and buy a new car anyway. At this point, a consumer can switch brands, forcing the car companies to create something we think is better.

Meanwhile, operating systems have maintained largely the same UI and UX from the start because we simply do not have many choices.

If you want to be a good teacher, then by definition it means that some people are not going to understand what you have to teach. Instead of optimizing for quick and easy, you should optimize for giving your students something to learn.

In 1998, after lots of dips in the business, and a failed attempt at selling the company, Seth finally sold Yoyodyne to Yahoo! for a reported $30m dollars. Life got better, of course, and primarily because he was now able to work on his product, without having to explain himself to anyone.

At one point, Seth had been on a verge of bankruptcy for nearly five years and pulled through. But plenty founders don't. How do you get so lucky? You try over and over again, until one day it finally works.

Seth knows that podcasts are hard and breaking out to be a hit is extremely hard, that is why he comes on occasional shows to support the creators and to encourage them to persevere .

Peer pressure. When the going gets tough, many people quit because they do not have the support structure to encourage them to succeed. Surround yourself with a group of people who will push you forward, and you can learn to win.

It is nearly impossible to change people who are not enrolled in the journey. People who do not want to learn cannot be taught. But, real change can happen when someone leans in.

Keep trying. Get creative, and iterate. You don't get good at something overnight. Seth got really good at writing by doing it over and over again.

Society puts a lot of pressure on people to fit in, not to stand out. Seek out people who care to stand out as much as you do, and those people will keep you going, when you feel like quitting.

Emotional labor is the mental work on has to do for the job at hand. For example, the difference between people who quit a marathon at mile 20 and the ones that finish is not physical strength, it is being able to put one's feeling of tired aside and to finish.

There is this idea that working 10,000 hours on something makes one an expert in that particular area. It is a really seductive idea as it reduces the secrets of success to a simple number.

Although there is no magic to success, and Seth has seen many successful people who've more hours, and many who put in less, they can all agree that purposeful and focused practice does pay off at the end.