1) John: How do you come up with big ideas on a seemingly daily basis?
Seth: Well, I guess I would respond by asking people how can they not generate that on a daily basis? If you talk to a plumber, as Harlan Ellison is famous for saying, you go, "Wow, that's amazing. You unclogged 6,000 toilets in your career." And what we do for a living now, is we think. What we do for a living now is we manipulate ideas and we make change happen.
If you knew that people, even five people, were waiting every single day to read what you were going to write on a blog, your brain would rise to the occasion. It would notice things. It would find things to talk about. There are very few people on this planet who go out to lunch with a friend and have absolutely nothing to say.
There are very few people who are unable to speak when spoken to. Well, if you're good at speaking to one individual, then you should be good at writing.
Lead question in an interview with Seth Godin. I've been impressed mostly by the how much idea generation he does but also by how good and how provoking many of those ideas are. Later in the interview he talks a little bit about his idea generation process.
During his remarks, Alan declared, “Social media is the future.” (Some of us might add, “Social media is also the ‘now.’”) Expressing his sensitivity to the power of social media, he joked that he would be taking care in his remarks as he was aware that many in attendance would be twittering during his talk.
Ford’s prowess and investment in social media is legendary. Each automobile model get’s its own Twitter page. Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and blogs are all part of the Ford sales and customer service workforce.
