Business is a very strange beast to me, on the one hand I understand importance of it, on the other hand I never wanted to dive deep into it. I guess business to me is like forbidden fruit – it is there, it is tempting but I never got enough desire to take a bite.
Something changed over last few years and I figured it wouldn’t hurt to learn a thing or two about marketing. This book was chosen almost randomly. As I scrolled over a blog, someone highly recommended the book, without much thought I picked it up.
This is my first book about marketing and since I’m fairly clueless on the subject, it is hard to judge the content. However I can cross reference some ideas from other books and materials:
- Story telling ( Presto! By Penn Jillette )
- Honesty & Accountability ( How to get Rich by Naval Ravikant )
- Social & Peer pressure ( Influencer by Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler )
- Not a perfect product & MVP ( Toyota 14 principles by Jeffrey K. Liker )
- Customer focus ( from Stanford startup course )
And so as I read the book, I came across some previously acquired knowledge (good refresher or reinforcement) and since the book is focused on one topic, there were more interesting tidbits.
Now I’ve been dragging my feet with this book for a very long time, embarrassingly long. It is a short read so what the problem? Well, the delivery is… for the lack of better word – ugly. Whenever I picked it up, shortly after I find my mind wondering away, loosing focus and interest. Often I had to put it away and say to myself: “may be tomorrow”. The book just simply does not flow. It is like a bumpy ride, might be entertaining for a bit but ultimately wears you out. Some books you can’t wait to pickup and keep on going, this one is the opposite – delay delay delay.
In a nutshell:
+: Interesting aphorisms, anecdotes and stories
+: General case studies and analysis
+: More on psychological side
+/-: Short book but hard read
-: Lack of concrete recipes and techniques
=: It is hard to make a conclusion on the book in the subject matter that I don’t know much about. I guess if you have to read it (because of a job or deep interest in the subject) then go for it. Otherwise it is not a pleasant read, you will have to commit to get through.
Title: This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn To See
Author: Seth Godin
Cover:
