Shipping (A Seth Godin-ism)

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Certain words invade your vocabulary — sometimes whether you realize it or not.

The one that has really invaded mine this year is “ship“.

I don’t think that I can go a week without it coming up at least a handful of times in a variety of contexts.

I first heard it on Seth Godin’s blog, I believe, and it was an oft-used word in his recent book Linchpin.

The concept is simple and is derived, I think, from the following Steve Jobs quote: “Real artists ship.”

Ever since I heard Godin use the term in a video on creativity and productivity, I loved it.

It stuck with me. I believed in shipping. I was committed to it. It became a mantra: just ship.

Finally, I had a word to describe the type of work ethic I wanted to see embodied in my team and myself. I didn’t want to create art for art’s sake; I wanted to do work that mattered, that made a difference in people’s lives. Not tomorrow, today.

I didn’t want to let a project sit on the shelf, constantly tweaking and re-tweaking, vainly attempting to reach perfection.

I wanted to fall in love with “good enough.”
I wanted to stop giving in to fear.
I wanted to put something out there — warts and all.

I wanted change something.

Certainly, there is a need for perfectionists in the world. When it comes to air traffic control or brain surgery, we want workers who are obsessed with quality. But where I spend most of my time, quite frankly, we need more people to ship.

Creativity is the act of winnowing down possibilities and deciding. It’s hard and painful and most creatives don’t do it. They just imagine.

But I want more. I want to create. I want to change.

I want to ship.

So, that’s my word, and I’m sticking to it.

Thanks, Seth.

What word or phrase has recently invaded your vocabulary?