PPB December 2015

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DECEMBER 2015 • PPB • 69
PPB: How did you become fearless?
Godin: I’m not. I don’t know a sane human who is. I’m always around
fear. The difference is that I use it to ship my work, to focus my energy,
to keep score.
PPB: What did you dream, for readers, for yourself, when
you set out to write this book?
Godin: Books are powerful indeed. Shared books are more powerful
still. A shared book gives us something in common, something to talk
about. The goal of the book is to inspire, not to reassure. We have a
magical moment in time, and I fear we’re wasting it.
PPB: Your strength is that you think differently than the
masses. Can you pinpoint an ‘aha’ moment in your life that
changed or began to change the way you think?
Godin: I would guess that most people think differently from the sta-
tus quo, but they’ve been brainwashed into not speaking up. The
emperor and his clothes. I decided many years ago that it was more
powerful, more leveraged and more fun to see things a little differently.
When I ignore that, I regret it. I held back during the early days of
the internet, because I didn't ‘see it.’ I think we lull ourselves into not
seeing, because it feels a lot safer. It’s not.
PPB: What is the root of your passion for nonconformity?
Godin: I have a passion for humanity. Humans don’t conform—
machines do, systems do, cogs do. When we are human, we’re connected,
charged up, alive. Why would we trade that in?
PPB: What are some of your biggest failures and what did
you learn from them?
Godin: I’ve had a few failures of commission. Books rejected (800
proposals in one year), sales calls aborted, employees that didn’t work
out. I’m much more focused on the failures of omission: the ‘thank-
yous’ I failed to say, the opportunities I failed to see or worse, move on;
the lessons I’ve failed to learn and the things I’ve failed to teach. The
person who fails the most, wins—at least the first kind of failures.
Small failures we learn from.
PPB: How do you measure your own success?
Godin: I’d like to be measured on what my students teach their stu-
dents. And I think the best way to make that happen is to be trusted,
to treat that trust with respect and to use it to make people uncom-
fortable enough that they’ll leap to the next level.
PPB: What makes you happiest?
Godin: My kids. My wife. Watching someone grow into the gener-
ous leader they are capable of becoming. Pulling a nice shot on an
espresso machine. A special batch of dark chocolate. Going for a walk
with my mutt. Paddling a canoe in Algonquin Park on a calm, cool
evening around sunset.
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Schedule Overview
Sunday, January 10
Committee Meetings
Paid Education
Monday, January 11
Education Sessions
General Session
Power Keynotes
Chairman’s Reception & Dinner
Tuesday, January 12
General Session
Show Floor Open
Education Sessions
PPAI Awards Presentation &
Reception
Wednesday, January 13
Show Floor Open
Education Sessions
PowerOfTwo Party
Thursday, January 14
Show Floor Open until 3 pm
Education Sessions
PHOTO BY JILL GREENBERG