Aaron Keller, Managing Principal, Capsule

Okay, rockstars are who they are because they’ve done something to earn it. This applies to the ones who play guitar and those who write books and get up on stages and inspire millions with their words. Rockstar authors and rockstar musicians have many commonalities.

  1. Authors sign books for their fans after, musicians sign body parts of their fans.
  2. Musicians have their time periods when they’re popular and musicians also have the good years and the bad.
  3. Authors have to entertain and make you think, musicians certainly entertain and the great ones also make you think.
  4. Sometimes musicians and authors at the end of their career may have a tendency to “phone it in,” as the kids say.

So, last week we were at FEI, The Front End of Innovation conference in Boston and Seth Godin took the stage. We wondered, would we hear new material? We wondered how good he would be for the 500 person audience? And, the image of Seth Godin, always in a spectacular suit and tie, turned into an image of Seth in Sweatpants.

Seth Godin

Would Seth Godin ever “phone it in?”

Well, this author’s guess is no way, no chance. Seth showed up in a full suit of Italian, took the stage with all the bravado expected of his name, his brand. And, after an hour passed there were a good number of audience faces, including mine, longing for more.

Thank you Seth for showing up in person and making some wonderful points about Art and the importance of taking risks.