start something...

Finished Seth Godin's new book, Poke the Box, last week and had to connect some student pastors and children's ministry leaders to these ideas. Many of us who work with teens, kids, and families are natural starters. We love innovation. We understand this generation. We love living in the present and pushing for a better future. This book is a call to start, experiment, and dream. Check out some of my favorite quotes from the book, go buy the book, and then go start something!

• Human nature is to need a map. If you’re brave enough to draw one, people will follow.
• Only by poking, testing, modifying, and understanding can we truly own anything, truly exert our influence.
• The more you do, the more you fail.
• For many of us, the resistance is always chattering away, frequently sabotaging our best opportunities and ruining our best chance to do great work. Naming it helps you befriend it, and befriending it helps you ignore it.
• Art is hard. Selling is hard. Writing is hard. Making a difference is hard.
• There’s never a problem getting a posse together to fix the broken. The upside for you (and the challenge) is to find the energy and the will to challenge the mediocre.
• Change is powerful, but change always comes with failure as its partner. “This might not work” isn’t merely something to be tolerated; it’s something you should seek out.
• To merely start without finishing is just boasting, or stalling, or a waste of time.
• Shipping is an event. There’s life before you ship and then there’s the moment you ship. And then there’s life after you ship. Starting isn’t like that. Starting something is not an event; it’s a series of events.
• Action is easy once you have a plan. Formulating a plan, however, is a rare and valuable skill.