Another great book by the marketing guru himself, Seth Godin. I’m a recent convert to Godin, after being introduced to his work by a co-worker of mine. Earlier this year, I read Tribes, listened to audiobooks of Purple Cow and Permission Marketing, have watched all of his TED Talks, and have listened to his Startup School Podcast (so far my favorite). I’m soaking it all in and loving it. In Poke the Box, Seth talks about how so often, we let fear and risk get in the way of starting something remarkable. The irony, Seth points out, is that it’s more risky to do nothing and continue with the status quo than to innovate and explore new ideas. Ultimately, the businesses that are afraid to innovate and try new ideas are the ones that can’t keep up and collapse.
“All great programmers learn the same way. They poke the box. They code something and what the computer does. They change it and see what the computer does. They repeat the process again and again until they figure out how the box works. The box might be a computer or it might be a market or it might be a customer or it might be your boss. It’s a puzzle, one that can be solved in only one way – by poking.”
At only 83 pages, it’s a short read. Seth has organized the book into short, 1-2 page chapters. His writing style with this book is a little bit scattered and non-linear, like a compilation of blog posts. Never-the-less it’s an entertaining, insightful and motivational read.