I just wrote Seth Godin an e-mail to thank him for something that he created back in 2004.
For Seth it was probably just a small thing, but he created the idea and then did the important work of making it happen.
Today in his blog, Seth was talking about urgent versus important. It’s something we all know, but we need a reminder every day.
Everyday, other people’s attempt to sell us on the urgency of their priorities works to take us away from doing the things that are important to the body of work that we should be creating one small thing at a time.
Today, what was important, was to thank Seth.
Seth Godin developed the idea for ChangeThis, a website aimed at spreading ideas through PDF files.
In the summer of 2004, Godin hired five interns-Amit Gupta, Catherine Hickey, Noah Weiss, Phoebe Espiritu and Michelle Sriwongtong-to build and develop the website.
Seth Godin, Hugh MacLeod, Brian Solis, Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson from 37signals, Guy Kawasaki, Chris Anderson, Jay Conrad Levinson, Tom Peters, Malcolm Gladwell and Robert Scoble all had manifestos featured on ChangeThis.
In July 2005, Change This was turned over to 800-CEO-READ, the leading distributor of business literature in the United States.
Great ideas were spread to thousands of people.
Why is it important to thank Seth?
I know that thousands of people probably thank Seth for impacting their lives every day, but maybe today is the day that Seth forgets that he is making an impact.
No matter how many times we hear from people telling us that we’ve made a difference, the lizard brain creeps in and tells us we are insignificant in the noise of this world.
It’s not true, but the world is telling us urgently that we don’t matter.
It’s the small things that make the big impact.
Who knows what Seth Godin is feeling today.
Here’s the good news.
You can do something important today. It’s easy and you can make a difference guaranteed.
Just tell someone that what they are doing matters.
Seth Godin does work every day that matters and so do you.
Just imagine if Seth (or you) stopped.
What a tragedy that would be.
Make sure that you don’t stop doing the important work and make sure that the people around you don’t stop doing the work that matters.
Something that Seth started way back in 2004 is still making a difference.
I just got word that “Change This” has approved my manifesto proposal titled: “The Impact Manifesto: You Make A Difference Whether You Want To Or Not”
Download it now at:
http://changethis.com/manifesto/show/108.03.ImpactFactor
All the best,
Ken McArthur
KenMcArthur.com
jvAlertLive.com
OneDayIntensive.com
TheImpactFactor.com