Seth Godin, is my favorite daily blogger.

He has an iconic book called “Purple Cow.”

I recently read the book, here are my highlights.

It’s safer to be risky.

Nobody says, “Yeah, I’d like to set myself up for some serious criticism!” Yet the only way to be remarkable is to do just that.

Treat attention of prospects as an asset – not a resource to be stripped and abandoned.

Remarkable = attract early adopters and easy for early adopters to sell peers on the product.

In today’s day it is useless to market to anyone but interested sneezers with influence.

Will your product catch on?
How smooth and easy is it to spread your idea?
How often will people sneeze it to friends?
How tightly knit is the group you’re targeting? Do they know each other?
Do they believe each other?
How reputable are those most likely to promote ideas?
How persistently does the fad fade or persist?

Boring always leads to failure – expect when being boring is, in and of itself, remarkable.

Lionel Poilane a famous french baker with perhaps the best international reputation for sourdough bread refused to hire bakers. Why? Too many bad habits to unlearn. So he hired those who were willing to apprentice with him for a few years.

Groups of audiences are valuable based on influence. Early adopters heavily influence the rest of the curve – persuading them is worth more than wasting ad $ to persuade someone else.

All in all this was a really fun read, the idea of focusing on a specific audience who are the sneezers reminded me a lot of the principle of Tipping Point and Malcolm Gladwell’s idea of Connectors.

I think Purple Cow is best read after Competing Against Luck as the two present good launch pads for understanding what to build and who to tell about it.

Photo by Jonathan Kemper on Unsplash.