When we find the empathy to say, “I’m sorry, this isn’t for you, here’s the phone number of my competitor,” then we also find the freedom to do work that matters.

Put that aside for a moment and find the empathy to fill in this sentence: “For people who want what you want ( ) and believe what you believe ( ), your choice of ____ is exactly correct.”

What this bimodal distribution teaches us is that there are at least two audiences that interact with every bestselling book. There’s the desired audience, the one that has a set of dreams and beliefs and wants that perfectly integrates with this work. And there’s the accidental audience, the one that gets more satisfaction out of not liking the

The critic who doesn’t like your work is correct. He doesn’t like your work. This cannot be argued with. The critic who says that no one else will like your work is wrong. After all, you like your work. Someone

For the rest of us, there’s the other path: the path of connection, empathy, and change.

Hits serve a useful purpose to our culture, but the essential lesson is this: someone is going to make hits, and it’s probably not going to be you.

Here are the key elements of the Dead’s marketing success: They appealed to a relatively tiny audience and focused all their energy on them. They didn’t use radio to spread their ideas to the masses. Instead, they relied on fans to share the word, hand to hand, by encouraging them to tape their shows. Instead of hoping to encourage a large number

Who would miss it if it were gone? If you can’t succeed in the small, why do you believe you will succeed in the large?

Every very good customer gets you another one.