Pick yourself

Seth Godin
2 min readFeb 9, 2021
No need to wait

Authority?

You want the authority to create, to be noticed and to make a difference?

You’re waiting for permission to stand up and speak up and ship?

Sorry. There’s no authority left.

Oprah has left the building. She can’t choose you to be on her show because her show is gone. YouTube wants you to have your own show now, but they’re not going to call you.

Dick Clark has left the building. He’s not going to be able to get you a record deal or a TV gig because his show is long gone. iTunes and a hundred other outlets want you to have your own gig now, but they’re not going to call you either.

Neither is the head of programming at Netflix.

Our cultural instinct to wait to get picked. To seek out the permission, authority and safety that comes from a publisher or talk show host or even a blogger saying, “I pick you.”

Once you reject that impulse and realize that no one is going to select you — that Prince Charming has chosen another house — then you can actually get to work.

The myth that the CEO is going to discover you and nurture you and ask you to join her for lunch is just that, a Hollywood myth.

It’s hardly ironic that I’m posting this on Medium. You don’t need Ev to say ‘go’ to post here…

--

--

Seth Godin

Founder of altMBA and Akimbo. Daily blogger, teacher, speaker, 20 bestsellers as well...