The Icarus Deception, an inspiring book about making meaningful work, by Seth Godin

A couple of nights ago I was listening to Jesse Thorn's Bullseye radio show and podcast. It was a terrific episode. His guests were singer-songwriter Aimee Mann, and one-man idea factory Seth Godin. Both of the interviews were fascinating, and were both related, in a way, because they were about creating art for a living. Aimee talked about how she came to enjoy writing music when she started doing it to please herself, and Seth talked about looking at everything you do as a kind of art.

Seth has a new book out called The Icarus Deception, which he talked about on Bullseye. I have a copy, and after hearing Seth's interview, I'm looking forward to reading it.

• [Josh Centers]

  Seth is an inspiration. His last book, Linchpin, changed how I saw myself and my career.

• [Liz]

  Whenever I run across happytalk like this, I wonder if the author or reporter ever goes out to talk to someone for whom this does not work out.  Sure follow your dreams but oops it flopped, you lost your house your savings and you can’t support your family anymore because we’re in a recession/depression and now the person can’t find a job.  Successful entrepreneurs or new businesses work hard but also are often beneficiaries of pure luck.  Lots of people fail at it with the same level of effort.  I wonder what did they do to pick up the pieces?

  • [Jesse Thorn]

    Well, Seth talks in the interview about a long period of his career where he couldn’t get anything off the ground. He also talks about developing the ability to see whether your work is actually any good.

    And Aimee talks about a period in her life where she (a professional musician) didn’t create any music because of the pain of her record company disaster.

    As a creative entrepreneur myself, I can assure you that the one way to guarantee that you won’t succeed is to shut yourself down before you start.

• [Diana Kakkar]

  Great Video! Just shared with my readers!