The character arc of Seth Godin

A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record

Born in 1960 in Mount Vernon, New York. Between then and now sit Williamsville East High School in 1978, Tufts, a Stanford MBA, Seth Godin Productions in 1986, Yoyodyne in 1995, its sale to Yahoo in 1998, Purple Cow in 2003, Squidoo in 2006, the altMBA in 2015 and the Marketing Hall of Fame in 2018. The line below draws the story so far, in order.

Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.

Who is Seth Godin?

He has published something nearly every day.

He left Williamsville East High School in 1978, studied computer science and philosophy at Tufts, and took an MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He worked at Spinnaker Software and left in 1986 to fund his own book packaging company, Seth Godin Productions, with twenty thousand dollars of his own money.

In 1995 he launched Yoyodyne with Mark Hurst, built on an idea he called permission marketing: ask before you interrupt. Flatiron Partners put four million dollars in during August 1996. Yahoo bought the company in 1998 for twenty nine and a half million dollars and he became its vice president of direct marketing.

What he did afterwards is the interesting part. Purple Cow came in 2003 and won Forbes Business Book of the Year in 2004. The Dip followed in 2007, Tribes in 2008, Linchpin in 2010, This Is Marketing in 2018 and The Song of Significance in 2023. He launched Squidoo in 2006 and sold it to HubPages in 2014, and founded the altMBA in 2015, a workshop rather than a degree. Alongside all of it he has kept a blog, posting almost every day for more than twenty years, which is a longer unbroken run than most publications manage. He entered the American Marketing Association's Marketing Hall of Fame in 2018.

The moments

Seth Godin's timeline.

The 1970s

Jun 1978

Williamsville East

Milestone. Computer science and philosophy, which is an odd pair and turns out to be the right one.

The 1980s

~1986

Twenty thousand dollars

Milestone, and it changed everything. His own twenty thousand dollars, and no investor to answer to.

The 1990s

~1995

Yoyodyne

Milestone, and it changed everything. One idea underneath it: ask before you interrupt.

Aug 1996

Four million in

Milestone, and it changed his direction. The first outside money, a year after starting.

12 Oct 1998

Yahoo buys Yoyodyne

Milestone, and it changed everything. Twenty nine and a half million dollars, and a title at Yahoo he did not keep for long.

1 Jun 1999

Stay at Yahoo, or write

Crossroads, decided.

The paths laid out: leave and write daily, taken, or stay inside Yahoo. Twenty books and more than two decades of near daily posts came from the first path, and Yahoo is no longer what it was.

The 2000s

8 May 2003

Purple Cow

Milestone, and it changed everything. A book about being remarkable, which had to be remarkable to make the point.

Mar 2006

Squidoo

Milestone, and it changed his direction. Another company, built while the books were selling.

16 Oct 2008

Tribes

Milestone, and it changed his direction. Two short books in two years, on quitting well and on leading without permission, with Linchpin following.

~2009

The daily habit

Milestone, and it changed everything. Nearly every day for over twenty years. Almost nothing else on any line here is that consistent.

The 2010s

~2015

The altMBA

Milestone, and it changed his direction. A workshop instead of a degree, and no accreditation to hide behind.

~2018

The Hall of Fame

Milestone, and it changed his direction. The trade's own hall of fame, and a book in the same year.

The 2020s

2 May 2023

The Song of Significance

Milestone. Still publishing books, and still publishing every morning.

The line reaches today still adding to itself, which is why it is drawn now rather than at the end. What it has set moving is not the company he sold, it is the demonstration that showing up on an ordinary Tuesday, for twenty years, adds up to more than any single good year could.

What he wrote

Books by Seth Godin

2003
Purple Cow
On being remarkable rather than merely good. Forbes Business Book of the Year in 2004.
2007
The Dip
A short book about knowing when to quit and when to push through.
2008
Tribes
On leading a group that wants to be led, without waiting for permission.
2010
Linchpin
On becoming the person a place cannot replace.
2018
This Is Marketing
The argument of his whole career in one volume: serve people rather than interrupt them.
2023
The Song of Significance
A new manifesto for teams, and what work is actually for.

Your turn

Every line draws a unique story.

His is made of one small thing done nearly every day for decades. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.

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Seth Godin: frequently asked questions

What people ask about his line.

What is Seth Godin's character arc?

He funded a small company with twenty thousand dollars of his own money, built a business on asking permission rather than interrupting, sold it to Yahoo, and then spent the next twenty five years publishing something almost every single day.

What is Seth Godin's Purple Cow?

His book of 2003, arguing that being remarkable is a strategy rather than a bonus, because ordinary products are invisible however well they are advertised. It won Forbes Business Book of the Year in 2004.

Did Seth Godin sell a company to Yahoo?

Yes. Yoyodyne, which he launched with Mark Hurst in 1995, was acquired by Yahoo in 1998 for 29.6 million dollars, and he became the company's vice president of direct marketing after the sale.

How long has Seth Godin blogged?

He has published to his blog almost every day for more than two decades, which is a longer unbroken run than most publications manage. Time named it among its twenty five best blogs in 2009.

What is Seth Godin's altMBA?

A workshop he founded in 2015, run over four weeks rather than two years, with no accreditation attached to it. It is the teaching equivalent of the argument his books make about doing work that matters.

What is permission marketing by Seth Godin?

The idea underneath Yoyodyne and most of his later work: ask before you interrupt, and earn the right to keep speaking to somebody. It is why his own audience arrived one post at a time rather than through advertising.

What books has Seth Godin written?

Among many others, Purple Cow in 2003, The Dip in 2007, Tribes in 2008, Linchpin in 2010, This Is Marketing in 2018 and The Song of Significance in 2023. He entered the Marketing Hall of Fame in 2018.

Where does this timeline of Seth Godin's life come from?

From the public record. Character Arc drew every moment on this line from the sources listed at the foot of the page, and the kind and weight of each moment are our editorial reading. Seth Godin isn't a Member of Character Arc and has no connection with it, and no feeling is attributed to him.

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Sources

Seth Godin, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
Yahoo, acquisition of Yoyodyne Entertainment, 1998.
American Marketing Association, Marketing Hall of Fame, 2018.