In Ruzuku's early days, our co-founder Rick Cecil sat down with Seth Godin for a wide-ranging conversation about what it takes to create work that matters. The interview was part of our "From There to Here" series — conversations with people who were defining their own path.
Seth had just published Linchpin, his argument that every person has the power to be indispensable. Fifteen years later, his ideas feel more relevant than ever — especially for anyone building an online course. The resistance he describes? Every course creator knows it intimately.
What follows is drawn from that original conversation, lightly edited for clarity.
Your Bluff Has Been Called
Seth opened with a provocation that still lands:
"If you said 20 years ago you wanted to write a book, you had a great excuse — no one would publish it. But now you can publish on the Internet for free. Now that your bluff has been called, you have to do it. If you have an idea for a product or a seminar or any piece of art you want to create, you can't blame anyone else for its non-existence."
This is the world course creators live in now. The tools exist. The platforms exist. You can reach students anywhere. The only thing between your expertise and a live course is the decision to start.
But Seth didn't stop there. He pushed further — and this is the part most people skip:
"Just doing something because you 'can' or because you 'want to' isn't enough. Now that everyone has the capability to take their ideas to market, you must be extraordinary."
In a world where anyone can publish a course, the bar isn't "does it exist?" The bar is "does it matter?" That's not about production value or slick marketing. It's about whether you've done the hard work of turning your knowledge into a genuine transformation for your students.
Resistance Is Your Compass
The core of Seth's argument — borrowed from Steven Pressfield's The War of Art — is that the thing you most need to do is the thing you most resist doing.
"Resistance is the weather vane that tells you which direction the marketplace will reward you. Resistance wants you to stop, you go. Resistance wants you to run, you stick to your guns."
I've seen this pattern play out with hundreds of course creators. The resistance shows up at predictable moments: right before you announce your pilot, right before you set a price, right before you hit "publish" on a lesson that feels too personal or too honest.
Those are exactly the moments that separate courses people tolerate from courses people remember. Our data backs this up — the courses with the highest completion rates on Ruzuku aren't the most polished. They're the ones where the instructor shows up with genuine vulnerability and asks students to do real work.
Seth named the mechanism behind this:
"Once you have a word for it, you can call it out. Every time you feel that resistance — feel like backing off or sabotaging your work — you know that is the moment you must do exactly the opposite."
The Act of Creating Matters More Than Any Single Creation
This might be the most liberating idea in the entire conversation — and it's one I come back to constantly when working with first-time course creators:
"If I look at a painting by Picasso or Monet, there are very few paintings they've done that they would be willing to die over. The act of painting was far more important than any particular painting. Not everything you do has to be the 'Mona Lisa.'"
This is why I'm such a strong advocate for pilot courses. Your first version doesn't need to be your best version. The median successful creator on Ruzuku has published 8 courses. They didn't get there by perfecting one course for years. They got there by creating, teaching, learning from students, and creating again.
Seth put it more bluntly:
"If you treat the result as being more important than the act, then the resistance will say to you, 'Oh, that one's not important enough, don't do that one.' My argument is that it's all important if you do it for the right reasons."
Failure Is the Point
Seth's take on failure is worth sitting with:
"I fail certainly more often than almost anyone I know. And it's one of the secrets of my success. And here's the secret of failure: the idea itself doesn't have to be that important."
For course creators, this reframes the entire launch process. Your pilot doesn't need to be "important enough" to justify your fear of launching it. The act of launching, teaching five students, getting real feedback — that's what's important. The specific topic of your first pilot matters far less than the fact that you did it.
"What I am begging people to do is make the decision about whether this is important or not. And if it's important, then you won't think about it anymore, you will just start failing, and failing often. Once you discover that failure doesn't kill you, then you can do it again."
I've watched this dynamic hundreds of times. The course creators who struggle most are the ones waiting for permission, for the perfect idea, for enough credentials. The ones who thrive are the ones who started before they felt ready — then iterated relentlessly.
Showing Up Consistently
Seth also shared something about his daily blogging practice that applies directly to running a course business:
"One idea by itself has a lot of trouble surviving on the Internet. Instead, what you need to do is consistently drip elements of the idea. Be present with articulations of the idea over time. That has a lot of power."
This is exactly what the best course creators do. They don't launch once and disappear. They build a body of work — a course, then a community, then a follow-up course, then a workshop, then a certification. Each iteration deepens their authority and strengthens their relationship with students.
The consistency compounds. Not every lesson will be a breakthrough. Not every cohort will be your best. But the act of showing up — teaching, refining, teaching again — is what builds a course business that lasts.
Why This Still Matters
This conversation happened in 2010, when Ruzuku was just getting started and "online courses" meant something very different than it does today. The tools have changed dramatically. The opportunity has grown exponentially. But the resistance hasn't changed at all.
If you're sitting on course material you know could help people — if you've been planning and outlining and researching but haven't actually taught anyone yet — re-read Seth's provocation: your bluff has been called. The platforms exist. The students are out there. The only question is whether you'll let the resistance win.
I don't think you will.
This article is based on an interview conducted by Rick Cecil, Ruzuku co-founder, as part of the "From There to Here" series (January 2010). The conversation has been edited and reframed for today's course creators.