Book Review – The Practice

Reviewed by: C.R. Bailly
Book TitleThe Practice
AuthorSeth Godin
Year of Publication2020
Genre: Motivational Business, Self-Improvement

The Book.  The author, Seth Godin, discussed the importance of being consistent with your creative work (whatever it is) and said that consistency builds your chances of success as well as your confidence.  There are four main sections in the book: Imposter Syndrome, The Practice, Grow Your Discard Pile, and  Ship More and On Schedule.

The Imposter syndrome is a normal feeling to have and with your commitment to consistency; you’ll grow confidence and begin to take small risks despite feeling like an imposter.  The Practice is best explained with Godin’s explanation, “The practice is not the means to the output, the practice is the output, because the practice is all we can control.” This leads right into the next section, Grow Your Discard Pile. Seth explained that your work is all about creating and to keep creating no matter what because the only way to have a success pile is to have an even bigger failed pile: “Good ideas come from bad ideas but only if you have enough of them.”  And he concluded the book with the reminder to create more, keep creating more, and always deliver on time. 

Favorites Bits.  There were many great ideas in the book but I narrowed it down to two concepts as personal favorites. OK, so the first is a quote from Godin, “We don’t ship the work because we’re creative; we’re creative because we ship the work.” Yes…that, exactly that! Also, Godin made so many points that we (can I speak for the proverbial ‘we’? yeah, why not) … likely knew subconsciously but we never put into words or coherent ideas/concepts. So hearing/reading these concepts brought it all to the surface and reminded us (creative types) to quit worrying and just do the work. So…Stop it, stop it right now! You heard me. Now go create stuff.

To read or not to read… Yes!  If you create work of any type (eg, writer, painter, designer, director, photographer, et cetera), then yes, yes, and yes. This book is worth your time.  

Where I found the book:  my copy of the book was purchased from Amazon (dot) com.  Note, I am not affiliated and do not receive any money for recommendations.

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