Have you read Seth Godin's books? Maybe you have read Purple Cow or Small is the New Big? He's good. But... is he good enough to get someone out of bed at 4:15 AM to catch the 5:25 train into downtown Chicago and hail a cab to get to Maggianos Little Italy by 7:00 AM to hear him speak?

Yes.

Greg Bowman and I rode down together today and hooked up with some other Willow Creek staffers to hear Seth speak to the Chicago Chamber of Commerce. He's a great speaker and did a talk about his new book The Dip. It's an insightful little book... an easy read (about 80 pages). His talk and presentation were virtually identical to the book content... if I'd have known that I wouldn't have needed to take five pages of notes... but I didn't want to miss anything!

The best moment: In the Q&A at the end someone asked Seth how he stays inspired and he said something like this:

It's the circle of people you see face to face and the circle of people you create online...communities... who will inspire you. I will go away... these people won't.

He was right.  When it was over, Seth was back on his book tour and we were back to Willow. On the way we stopped at Corner Bakery and spent about 90 minutes debriefing the experience. We talked for another hour on the train. We agreed and disagreed about the talk... and learned about each other. We are closer now than before our little excursion. We are a community and we will be again tomorrow. I feel inspired.

Who inspires you? Great authors? Great pastors? Great communities?