Purple Cow
by Seth Godin
Godin's marketing book from 2003 argues that safe products are invisible and that the only way to be noticed is to be remarkable, a purple cow in a field of brown ones. It is short and punchy, with examples that have aged (some of his cows became cliches), but the central point is sharper than ever in a crowded market.
Read it if…
you sell a product, service or yourself and are competing on being slightly better.
Skip it if…
you want current case studies; many here are twenty years old.
Three things you will actually use
- Be remarkable or be ignored.
- Design for the people who spread ideas.
- Safe is risky.
Do this first
Write down what about your offer would make someone tell a friend; if nothing, that is the problem.
Our verdict
A short, dated, still-correct provocation.
Compare with other Entrepreneurship books
Zero to One
Peter Thiel with Blake Masters · Entrepreneurship
Provocative and brilliant in parts; read it to think, not to copy.
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Rework
Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson · Entrepreneurship
Bracing and quick; a good antidote to over-planning.
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The Lean Startup
Eric Ries · Entrepreneurship
A standard-setting method book; essential ideas, average prose.
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