Don’t try to be everything to everyone is a powerful reminder that true success comes from focus. It’s about choosing your audience and serving them so deeply that you become indispensable.
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Table of Contents
Meaning
The core message is about strategic focus over frantic universal appeal. Stop trying to please everyone and instead, become profoundly important to a specific group.
Explanation
Look, I’ve seen so many businesses and even individuals get this wrong. They think growth means broadening their message, adding more features, trying to appeal to every single person. It’s a trap. It’s a recipe for being… bland. Forgettable. When you try to be everything to everyone, you end up being nothing to anyone. The real magic, the real leverage, happens when you double down. When you pick a specific someone—a specific customer, a specific reader, a specific user—and you solve their problem so completely, so remarkably, that they can’t imagine their world without you. That’s how you build a real tribe. That’s how you become a Purple Cow in a field of identical brown ones.
Quote Summary
Reading Level71
Aesthetic Score91
Origin & Factcheck
This is straight from marketing legend Seth Godin. It’s a central theme in his 2003 book, “Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable,” which was published in the United States. You sometimes see the sentiment pop up elsewhere, but this specific phrasing is pure Godin.
Attribution Summary
Author Bio
Seth Godin writes and teaches about marketing, leadership, and creative work. After earning an MBA from Stanford, he founded Yoyodyne, sold it to Yahoo!, and later launched ventures like Squidoo and the altMBA. He has authored bestsellers such as Permission Marketing, Purple Cow, Tribes, Linchpin, and This Is Marketing. He posts daily at seths.blog and speaks globally about making work that matters. If you’re starting with the Seth Godin book list, expect insights on trust, storytelling, and shipping creative projects that change culture.
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Where is this quotation located?
| Quotation | Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Remarkable is being something to someone |
| Book Details | Publication Year/Date: 2003; ISBN/Unique Identifier: 9781591843177; Last edition: 2010; Number of pages: 160. |
| Where is it? | Chapter 19: Focus, page 109/160 |
Context
In the book, Godin argues that the old ways of marketing—interrupting people with ads—are dead. The only way to succeed now is to build something truly noteworthy right into your product or service from the start. The “Purple Cow” is that remarkable thing. And you can’t be remarkable if you’re designed by committee to offend no one.
Usage Examples
Let me give you a couple of ways I’ve seen this play out.
- For a Startup Founder: Instead of building a “project management tool for everyone,” you build one specifically for remote software teams or marketing agencies. You bake in features that are absolutely critical for them, even if those features are irrelevant to other industries. You speak their language. You become their tool.
- For a Content Creator: Don’t try to make videos for “everyone interested in fitness.” Make videos for busy parents who need 15-minute home workouts or for people over 50 looking to rebuild joint strength. Your content becomes a lifeline for that specific group.
- For a Job Seeker: Don’t send the same generic resume to 100 companies. Tailor your application and your personal pitch to speak directly to the exact problems and culture of the 5 companies you’d truly love to work for. You stand out because you’re a perfect fit for them, not a mediocre fit for many.
To whom it appeals?
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Motivation Score84
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FAQ
Question: Doesn’t this limit my potential market size?
Answer: It feels that way, right? But it’s the opposite. By focusing intensely on a core group, you create passionate advocates. Those advocates then bring you more of the *right* kind of customers, leading to more sustainable, organic growth than any bland, mass-market appeal ever could.
Question: How do I find my “someone”?
Answer: Start with your best existing customers or your most engaged audience members. Who are they? What do they desperately want? What do they complain about? Your “someone” is the person whose problem you are uniquely positioned to solve better than anyone else.
Question: What if my boss or client wants to appeal to a broad audience?
Answer: This is a classic challenge. Frame it in terms of ROI. Explain that a focused strategy leads to higher conversion rates, stronger customer loyalty, and more effective (and cheaper) marketing. A broad strategy often wastes resources trying to reach people who will never care.
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