Poke the Box

By: Seth Godin

Narrated by: Seth Godin

We send our kids to school and obsess about their test scores, their behavior, and their ability to fit in. We post a help-wanted ad and look for experience, famous colleges, and a history of avoiding failure. We invest in companies based on how they did last quarter, not on what they’re going to do tomorrow. So why are we surprised when it all falls apart?

Our economy is not static, but we act as if it is. Your position in the world is defined by what you instigate, how you provoke, and what you learn from the events you cause. In a world filled with change, that’s what matters - your ability to create and learn from change.

Poke the Box is a manifesto about producing something that’s scarce, and thus valuable. It demands that you stop waiting for a road map and start drawing one instead. You know how to do this, you’ve done it before, but along the way, someone talked you out of it. We need your insight and your dreams and your contributions. Hurry.

©2011 Seth Godin (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Quick Inspiring Listening

Start things means Poke the Box.
If the cost of losing is less than being boring than poke the box, start do something.
If you start something which has no risk, No opportunity to succeed, it does not count.
Poke the box, succeed, if you fail, try again; poke the box until you get success.
Encourage kids to organize clubs and their own extracurricular activities. This will help them to become initiators, start things and implement ideas to get success.
Overall a good read. I will suggest reading Linchpin first by the same author and then Poke the Box.
Go Poke the Box and get what you want.

at first I thought this was too short of a book.

I anticipated that this book would not be that insightful or helpful. I was wrong. Even if you are a person who does start things often, this book will help you know that you are on the right track and encourage you to keep starting stuff. If you are not a person that starts things on a regular basis, start this book today!

Great Performance Good Story

I think that the overall book is good and inspiring to let loose that fear that comes from dealing with peers. However, the only thing is it sometimes keeps hitting the same target over and over again and at times can feel a little repetitive. Other than that, a good read.

Go! Go! Go! Brilliance!

Inspiring, insightful and exactly what is needed to cajole us out of complacency and entice us into braving releasing our ideas.

good quick read

I enjoyed this as a bit of a jolt to my work life. It has some good thoughts that do allow me to pull away barriers I think are there but probably aren't. I have already told my coworkers about it.

eye opening.

I thought the book was very innovative and inspirational. I'll be sending this book to all of my employees. Thank you.

You know when you find a book that makes you start

This book is about starting. It's about having the courage to try, to experiment, to make things.
For me it was a starting point. I realised how much I have to lose if I don't start things.
After reading this I started doing things. Will see what's happening, but the important thing is that I've started them.

Story - amazing, Performance - brilliant, Narrator - genius

Decent

Basically a rant on starting. Got some decent ideas, but the author tends to be a bit repetitive at times. This small book could easily be written in the form of a decently sized blog post, but hey, I guess everybody wants to make money, right? :)

Good inspiration.

I took away from this book the conviction that the most important thing is to start, and keep starting every day, even though it's painful. I have resolved to pick myself first and not wait to be picked. Thanks Seth Godin!

Brilliantly executed with solid content.

Seth coaches the masses to jump into their dreams and explore, instead of sitting on the sidelines wasting time thinking about "what if", and even those people get a good chuckle or two on this outing. Nice work.