Carey "Trip" Giudici

When Surfers Watch the Shore

In Beyond the Mantra on May 11, 2010 at 12:07 pm

Yesterday my favorite blogger, Seth Godin, shared a brilliant analogy about business success in the internet age.

He says today’s successful people are like “surfers.” Unafraid of a wave’s inherent instability, they “hunt for that blissful moment that combines three unstable elements in combination.”

It takes guts for a surfer to focus on something as unpredictable as the liquid curl of a wave. It takes even more guts for an entrepreneur to build their business on freedom, change and risk.

But entrepreneurs or businesses that can’t let go of industrial-age business and marketing models are like surfers who secretly long for the safety of the shore, or race car drivers who keep glancing at the race track wall.

They crash.

p.s. For a striking illustration, check out the Guinness commercial that British viewers called the best one ever.

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