Collide Magazine

Last week’s Catalyst Conference was great. The Catalyst team, plus their speakers and other special guests, did a phenomenal job. I’m still chewing on most of what I heard from the Catalyst stage, but I wanted to share a handful of nuggets (not exact quotes, but paraphrased as best as I can manage) from Jim Collins and Seth Godin with you:

• “If you have more than three top priorities, you have no top priorities.” — Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, etc.
• “We tend to confuse personality and leadership.” — Jim Collins.
• “In a tribe, numbers don’t matter; it’s how well the members are connected.” — Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow, etc.
• “Become a heretic.” — Seth Godin.

In reference to that last idea, Godin defines a heretic as “someone whose faith is so strong they’re willing to take heat from the status quo.” The example he gave that resonated with the Catalyst crowd? Martin Luther. He was excommunicated (and nearly killed) for his commitment to his convictions. I couldn’t help but wish the Church found itself infested with more “heretics” these days—people willing to take heat for challenging our narcissism, greed, and laziness (among other things).

Godin doesn’t publicly affiliate himself with any particular religion or worldview, but I sure learned a lot from him last week. If your budget has $149 worth of wiggle room in it, the Catalyst 2008 DVD Set would be a wise investment.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 13th, 2008 at 1:55 pm and is filed under Conferences, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.