AB 07 | Purple Cow Doing The Work - Entrepreneurialism

The Audiobooks.com Podcast | Let Us Tell You A Story

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Welcome back to the Audiobooks.com podcast! This episode of the podcast was released on September 1, 2015 and, as such, we take a look at the season, the challenges and excitements of the upcoming months, and what we look forward to most! (Pumpkin latte, anyone? Not yet? Ok.)

Once again, Addy and Brian chose to review very complementary audiobooks in the business and personal development genre. Addy reviews Do the Work by Steven Pressfield, while Brian reviews Purple Cow by Seth Godin.

News

Girl on the Train is being made into a movie! (Note: this is not the 2013 thriller starring Henry Ian Cusick.) The psychological thriller published in January by author Paula Hawkins was optioned by DreamWorks and is already getting some buzz over the casting of the characters. One major change already rumored in the course of the book's adaptation is that the film will likely take place in upstate New York, as opposed to the English backdrop of the story. As this change does not seem to cause the author to lose sleep, it shall be interesting to see what The Help's Tate Taylor will do with the film.

The audiobook for Girl on the Train is narrated by Clare Corbett and Louise Brealey and is 11 hours long.

The penultimate book in the Lorien Legacies series, The Fate of Ten, is scheduled for release September 1, 2015. The first book of the series, I Am Number Four, was released back in 2010 and subsequently had a film adapted in its honor, starring Alex Pettyfer and Timothy Olyphant. Neither the box office numbers nor the critical response of the film were anything to get excited over and the sequel was shelved.

The six books thus far in the Lorien Legacies series have one narrator in common, Neil Kaplan, but use an array of narrators for different voices. Each book hovers around the 10 hour mark.

Audiobook Reviews

Often called a manifesto, Steven Pressfield's Do The Work is an action guide that helps readers address points of resistance along the road to the completion of a project. Interestingly, the foreword is written by the author of the book that Brian listened to, Seth Godin, and in it he writes: "It will help you understand why you're stuck; it will kick you in the pants, and it will get you moving."

The book was originally published in April of 2011 is a follow up to Pressfield’s 2002 non-fiction book The War of Art (not to be confused with The Art of War by Sun Tzu, which Brian reviewed last week). Both books address the enemy of creativity and how to empower oneself to rise above the fear often accompanied by participating in a world where criticism and roadblocks abound. Whether you're a creative type or an entrepreneur, this book can bring you step by step through the process of overcoming that fear and resistance in order to produce your desired result. And Pressfield does it all in 1 hour and 26 minutes!

Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin follows a very similar vein, but is pleasantly complementary to Do The Work. The 2003 book is 3 hours in length and, like Do the Work, is also narrated by its author.

The phrase purple cow comes from a 1895 poem by Gelett Burgess:

I never saw a Purple Cow,

I never hope to see one;

But I can tell you, anyhow,

I'd rather see than be one.

The short, quippy poem became popular very quickly and Burgess actually came to regret writing it. He wrote a follow up poem in 1897, the last line of which reads: "I'll Kill you if you Quote it!" Most authors would kill for that kind of popularity, not kill because of the popularity.

Despite the author's backtracking, the poem has a unique nuance in modern culture. It can be read as embracing the idea of sticking to the status quo because sticking out is harder than fitting in, but Godin takes a different approach. Godin embraces the heart of this poem by pointing out that, as a society, we are saturated in choices that have few differences. The status quo, the traditional marketing techniques, no longer cut it in our fast-paced, mostly-online culture, and this idea of putting a purple cow into everything you do embraces the idea of being different. In one interview, Godin says: "Purple Cow is about the inexorable decline in the effectiveness of advertising and what to do about it." It's not effective to be status quo; don't see the purple cow, be the purple cow!

Start with Pressfield's book, learn to overcome the fears that hold you back from achieving your dreams, then read Godin's book to discover how being the purple cow of your industry will produce the type of results you're looking for! Then report back and tell us how you did!

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Books & Resources Mentioned

Do The Work by Steven Pressfield | Narrated by Steven Pressfield

Purple Cow by Seth Godin | Narrated by Seth Godin

The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins | Narrated bu Clare Corbett, Louise Brealey

I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore | Narrated by Neil Kaplan