User Profile

One reason I'm reluctant when it comes to bicycling is that a bike's a kind of tool. You need a helmet, bike shoes, and all sorts of other accoutrements, and you have to maintain all the parts and equipment. I'm just not very good at taking care of tools. Plus, you have to find a safe course where you can pedal as fast as you want. It always seems like too much of a hassle. The other factor is fear. To get to a decent bike path I have to ride through town, and the fear I feel when I weave in and out of traffic on my sports bike with its skinny tires and my bike shoes strapped tight in the straps is something you can't understand unless you've gone through it. As I've gotten more experienced l've gotten used to it, or at least learned how to survive, but there have been many moments startling enough to put me in a cold sweat.

— What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami (Page 95)

If you're a long-distance runner who trains hard every day, your knees are your weak point. Every time your feet hit the ground when you run, it's a shock equivalent to three times your weight, and this repeats itself perhaps over ten thousand times a day. With the hard concrete surface of the road meeting this ridiculous amount of weight (granted, there's the cushioning of the shoes between them), your knees silently endure all this endless pounding. If you think of this (and I admit it's something I don't usually think about), it would seem strange if you didn't have a problem with your knees.

— What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami (Page 88)

What matters now: • Trust • Permission • Remarkability - Leadership • Stories that spread • Humanity: connection, compassion, and humility

And here's the thing: All six of these are the result of successful work by artists. These assets aren't generated by external strategies and MBAs and positioning memos. These are the results of internal trauma, of brave decisions and the willingness to live with dignity. They are about standing out, not fitting in, about inventing, not duplicating.

— The Icarus Deception How High Will You Fly by Seth Godin (Page 39)

There are so many places that art and connection are needed, so many avenues that are open, so many opportunities, that no one is boxed out. It's not about whether we have what it takes; it's about whether we choose to pursue it. Of course it's difficult to overcome a lifetime of education (and brainwashing). New habits will have to be created, and new expectations to go with them. But the astonishing news is that for the first time in recorded history, it matters not so much where you're born or what your DNA says about you the connection economy is waiting for you to step forward, with only the resistance to hold you back.

— The Icarus Deception How High Will You Fly by Seth Godin (Page 37)

"Too big to fail" is the goal of every industrialist, but "too big to fail" means that capitalism is no longer functioning.

— The Icarus Deception How High Will You Fly by Seth Godin (Page 30)

Initiating a project, a blog, a Wikipedia article, even a unique family journey. Initiating something particularly when you're not putatively in charge. We avoid these acts because we've been trained to avoid them. At the same time, almost all people believe they are capable of editing, giving feedback, or merely criticizing. That means that finding people to fix your typos is easy. Finding someone to say "go" is almost impossible. I don't think the shortage of artists has much to do with the innate ability to create or initiate. I think it has to do with believing that it's possible and acceptable for you to do it. We've had these doors open wide for only a decade or so, and most people have been brainwashed into believing that their job is to copyedit the world, not to design it.

— The Icarus Deception How High Will You Fly by Seth Godin (Page 23)

In the words of Joseph Campbell, you're doing art "for the experience of being alive." The alternative is to be numb, to lull yourself into the false sense of security offered by the promise of the rare well-paid job where you are doing someone else's bidding.

— The Icarus Deception How High Will You Fly by Seth Godin (Page 22)

If your team is filled with people who work for the company, you'll soon be defeated by tribes of people who work for a cause. If you use your money to buy advertising to promote the average products you produce for average people, soon you'll run out of money. But if you use your money to make exceptional products and services, you won't need to spend it on advertising, because your customers will connect to one another and bring you more. The connection economy has changed how you get a job and what you do when you get to that job. It has changed how we make and listen to music, write and read books, and discover where to eat, what to eat, and whom to eat with. It has destroyed the mediocre middle of average products for average people who have few choices, and it has enabled the weird edges, where people who care find others who care and they all end up caring about something even more than they did before they met.

— The Icarus Deception How High Will You Fly by Seth Godin (Page 19)

Art Is Frightening Art isn't pretty. Art isn't painting. Art isn't something you hang on the wall. Art is what we do when we're truly alive. If you've already decided that you're not an artist, it's worth considering why you made that decision and what it might take to unmake it. If you've announced that you have no talent (in anything!), then you're hiding. Art might scare you. Art might bust you. But art is who we are and what we do and what we need. An artist is someone who uses bravery, insight, creativity, and boldness to challenge the status quo. And an artist takes it (all of it, the work, the process, the feedback from those we seek to connect with) personally. Art isn't a result; it's a journey. The challenge of our time is to find a journey worthy of your heart and your soul.

— The Icarus Deception How High Will You Fly by Seth Godin (Page 15)

When you see runners in town it's easy to distinguish beginners from veterans. The ones panting are beginners; the ones with quiet, measured breathing are the veterans. Their hearts, lost in thought, slowly tick away time. When we pass each other on the road, we listen to the rhythm of each other's breathing, and sense the way the other person is ticking away the moments. Much like two writers perceive each other's diction and style.

— What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami (Page 60)

Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest.

— What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami (Page 58)

Fortunately, these two disciplines-focus and endurance are different from talent, since they can be acquired and sharpened through training. You'll naturally learn both concentration and endurance when you sit down every day at your desk and train yourself to focus on one point. This is a lot like the training of muscles I wrote of a moment ago. You have to continually transmit the object of your focus to your entire body, and make sure it thoroughly assimilates the information necessary for you to write every single day and concentrate on the work at hand. And gradually you'll expand the limits of what you're able to do. Almost imperceptibly you'll make the bar rise. This involves the same process as jogging every day to strengthen your muscles and develop a runner's physique. Add a stimulus and keep it up. And repeat.

— What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami (Page 55)

The most important thing we ever learn at school is the fact that the most important things can't be learned at school.

— What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami (Page 33)

I used to tend to gain weight, but around that time my weight stabilized at where it should be. Exercising every day, I naturally reached my ideal weight, and I discovered this helped my performance. Along with this, my diet started to gradually change as well. I began to eat mostly vegetables, with fish as my main source of protein. I never liked meat much anyway, and this aversion became even more pronounced. I cut back on rice and alcohol and began using all natural ingredients.

— What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami (Page 30)

If one out of ten enjoyed the place and said he'd come again, that was enough. If one out of ten was a repeat customer, then the business would survive. To put it the other way, it didn't matter if nine out of ten didn't like my bar. This realization lifted a weight off my shoulders. Still, I had to make sure that the one person who did like the place really liked it. In order to make sure he did, I had to make my philosophy and stance clear-cut, and patiently maintain that stance no matter what. This is what I learned through running a business.

— What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami (Page 28)