Not to Pursue, but to Ensue

Godin listed the skills he felt couldn’t be outsourced.

analysis

insight

surprise

responsibility

humor

creativity

guts

respect

charisma

vision

calm

love

Did you learn any of those in a classroom? The only way I’ve found them is to surround yourself with people that already have them. To absorb them through iteration and imitation until they become dispositional. Books are only a mediocre substitute. The key though is to avoid the academic pressures that push you away from those skills and towards sycophantry, cautiousness, repetition, tradition, jealousy and shortsightedness. Because once you tattoo yourself with those any of these viewpoints, the scars never go away.

Written by Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday is the bestselling author of Trust Me, I’m Lying, The Obstacle Is The Way, Ego Is The Enemy, and other books about marketing, culture, and the human condition. His work has been translated into thirty languages and has appeared everywhere from the Columbia Journalism Review to Fast Company. His company, Brass Check, has advised companies such as Google, TASER, and Complex, as well as Grammy Award winning musicians and some of the biggest authors in the world. He lives in Austin, Texas.