Summary of the Big Moo-Seth Godin

Summary of the Big Moo-Seth Godin

The Big Moo is an exceptional combination of 33 of the world’s smartest business thinkers, blending their best ideas on how you can remarkablize your organisation. This book tells the stories of the 33 people and teaches us lessons from it.

The world has changed, but our organisations haven’t changed with it. We can no longer rely on the old solutions and the proven products and services that we’ve built our efforts around. Good enough isn’t cutting it anymore, because everything is good enough. For this book Godin recruited the Group of 33 – a gathering of bestselling authors and business superstars to explore this idea of how to make something remarkable.

As Seth Godin said in his widely quoted bestseller Purple Cow, first you need to stop being a brown cow and dare to be purple, but that’s not enough. You need a big moo. Now you might be wondering what a big moo is? Well, it’s an extreme purple cow, an innovation that completely changes the game. The book states that when you decide to become remarkable, you will grow.

There are three secrets to being remarkable:

1.       Stop doing things that hurt; do what you love

2.       Ignore what authority figures tell you

3.       And most of all practice, practice, practice

It takes 99 percent of the time you spend just to be average. The remarkable stuff can happen in a flash.

We should stop being afraid of failure and being rejected. Failure isn’t a bad thing, we learn from our mistakes so fail, fail quick so that you can get back up and do it better next time. Why are we afraid of being criticized when it gives us a chance to reflect and improve ourselves? Being remarkable is exactly that, we should set ourselves up for criticism in order to better ourselves, only then will we grow and become remarkable.

The secret is bringing great ideas from another market or industry to your market your industry. Remember, companies that are good at being edgy will always find a way to thrive. The sure way to fail is to compromise. Sometimes, compromise is worse than doing nothing, and leaping into the unknown with all the enthusiasm and naiveté of a toddler is the best thing you can do.

So, the first step to becoming extraordinary of course is to stop being ordinary. You need passion, trust, attention, guts to ask what’s missing, a positive attitude and the realisation that learning is a paradox, without it you are literally dead. This book is definitely good advice for anybody who wants to be remarkable. Always remember that it takes courage to do what you want. A lot of other people have  a lot of other plans for you.