Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

Great book. Changed my perception on how i see brands and how to start one. Not only a good book for business but can teach you about community. I love how straight forward it is as well. Easy great read.

If I hear that Seth Godin (SMALL IS THE NEW BIG, MARKETERS ARE LIARS, etc.) has written a new book, I make it a point to read it as quickly as possible . . . what he has to say gets me to think, and it almost makes me wonder how come I didn't think of that first. Such is the case with Godin's latest, TRIBES . . . as he defines the term: * A tribe is a group of people, connected to one another, connected to a leader and connected to an idea. . . . A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate. . . . Tribes need leadership. Sometimes one person leads, sometimes more. . . . You can't have a tribe without a leader--and you can't be a leader without a tribe. The author then gives several, eye-opening examples of tribes in action, but my favorite was Jerry Garica and the Grateful Dead . . . not only did the group gross more than $100 million during its career, but it managed to succeed not by selling records (only one album ever made the Top 40), but rather by attracting and leading a tribe. Another one that caught my attention was Jack, an "occasional restaurant" run by Danielle Sucher and Dave Turner in Brooklyn: * They open the restaurant only about twenty times a year, on Saturday nights. By appointment. Go online and you can see the menu in advance. Then, you book and pay if you want to go. Instead of seeking diners for their dishes, Danielle and Dave get to create dishes for their diners. Instead of serving anonymous patrons, they throw a party. Danielle is the food columnist for the popular Gothamist Web site, and she and Dave run the food blog Habeas Brulee. That means they already interact with the tribe. It means that once the restaurant is up and running, it becomes the central clearinghouse, the place to hang out with the other tribe members. If the food is daring and the service is generous, Jack can't fail. What a great formula for restaurant success; in fact, for any business to follow . . . but as Godin notes, there are others who do the same that you probably never realized: * Fox News didn't persuade millions of people to become conservative; they just assembled the tribe and led them where they were already headed. I was inspired by TRIBES as I came to the realization that to be a leader, you don't always need to win an election . . . you just need to think about the opportunities out there for leading your fellow employees, customers, investors or even readers of this newsletter . . . then go ahead and lead them.

The idea of a tribe isn't new. Man (and woman) have formed tribes since the dawn of time - for safety, food, socializing and survival. Fast forward past Cro-magnon man and you'll see, technology and the times change, but people don't. The "tribe" instinct - the thing inside us that drives us to join a gang, the geeks, the jocks, the nerds, the greasers and later the church, the Rotary, a fraternity or sorority is still intact. The need to form a tribe to survive never left us. But instead of dinosaurs and invading armies, we need to survive peer pressure, office politics, business competition and a host of other assaults on our particular group. The industrial age was gathering momentum and a top-down power strategy, and the crush to form tribes was sublimated - into Scouting, Tupperware Parties and religious organizations. The popular leadership books about power dwelt more on what to wear (power ties - suits and business attire), how to survive office politics (Machiavelli) and "management" of resources (ie. people as capital, not human beings). If you've spent any time on the internet you know at first glance it's a web of lonely people, horny teens (and adults), marketers, snake oil salesmen, tin-hat conspirators, politicians and those same groups we all met growing up. Dig deeper and you find just as many, or more, people wanting to save the world, the rain forests or the downtrodden. There are those determined to help others, to make the world a better place and improve the lot of us all. It's a world worth saving - and possible to save - if we understand the renewed role tribes will have in the world in the coming decades. Tribes? We all know them - just by a different name, club, fraternity, group, team. Seth Godin connects the dots, lights the candle in the darkness of our dim awareness, and leads the reader on a quick tour of the history of tribes - ie. The Grateful Dead, and lesser known entrepreneurs who *got it* and learned that tribes need leaders. Pre-internet, one person needed a lifetime of influence to make a change. Now one person with a YouTube.com account can impact the world in 24 hours with the right video. The power quotient has shifted. Just as blogging took power out of the hands of the elite and put it into the hands of the ordinary citizen, so learning how to find, form and lead a tribe. It's a quick read - only 147 pages. Godin uses many, many, many examples to get his point across, and a few more in-depth essays that detail the specifics - such as how he used a newsletter to unite a tribe and accomplish a goal early in his career. If you're looking for a how-to book, heavy on the step (1), step (2) and step (3) guide to becoming a leader, this isn't it. It is a visionary overview of the significance, importance and potential of tribes, where they're found, how they've impact society and how they will continue to shape the world in the decades to come. If you're currently a leader, or wondering if you have it

This book represented so much of how leadership comes together as a tribe and a community that rallies to create movements that start from a shared vision, not as an individual, but through the vision of leaders willing to take risks and step into something bigger than them and living in the discomfort of hoping others will believe as well. I had a chance to interview Seth Godin on 10/30/2008 and he shared some wonderful insights. Along with this book - check out my interview on The Leading Connection Podcast Series at http://feeds.feedburner.com/LeadingConnectionPodcast. Keep up the Great Work Seth.

Tribes is for you. If you are an entrepreneur, Tribes is especially for you. That is true regardless of being one of the new Baby Boomer Entrepreneurs or if you are one of the young people around the world who are responding to the call to entrepreneurial careers as a result of Global Entrepreneurship Week. It is for you because "We need You to lead US". Tribes will help you develop your entrepreneurial mindset. It will do that by helping you think about how much time you spend reacting, responding, and initiating. You will explore the difference between things that happen to you and things you do. Tribes will give you new ways to evaluate entrepreneurial ideas. It will begin by sharing with you that it is not so much about having great ideas. Ideas are plentiful and often free. It is much more about taking initiative and making ideas come to reality. Tribes will help you find a new work - life balance. You will learn to craft a life from which you don't have to escape. Tribes is a different style book. It resembles a conversation between you and Seth Godin. Rather than having chapters, you will discuss thoughts...thoughts that uncover for you his main point. You don't have the opportunity to lead; you have the obligation to lead. That understood, Seth will encourage you to make a decision to lead.

In the classic Godin style, more than anything this book is motivational, with an expected emphasis on embracing change and overcoming the F-word (Fear). But this time there's more to it (hence the multitude of tags) -- leadership! We have to assemble and lead a tribe, and "managing" isn't going to work. We must start movements, via motivation and connectivity. "The barriers to leadership have fallen," as the necessary tools are now readily available: blogs, search, RSS, social networks, GTD, progress trackers, etc. Short and sweet at 127 unstructured, linear entries, it's an assortment of advice, admonitions, case studies, experiments, quotations, and anecdotal stories, including a revision to the Peter Principle(!). I was compelled to compile my own glossary to aid in remembering all the rich metaphors. It includes: authentic generosity, balloon factories (and unicorns), charisma, criticism, curiosity (vs fundamentalism), heresy (vs status quo), faith (vs religion), remarkability (vs fear), leadership/empowerment (vs sheepwalking, vs participation, vs management), micromovement, passion (vs bureaucracy), reinvention (vs perfection), thermostat (vs thermometer), tribe (vs factory), yes/no (vs not yet) -- words which will now have a refreshed home in my vocabulary. Paraphrasing some of the most resonant excerpts: - Capitalize on a non-obvious moment/opportunity; get there first. - Recipe for starting a micromovement: manifesto, connectablity, money is not the point, track progress. - Persuasion: don't start with opposition, seek the uncommitted passionates. - Help your tribe sing, whatever form that song takes. - Elements of leadership: challenge status quo, create culture, be charismatic, communicate vision, connect. - "I started a newsletter..." I appreciate that Seth's content is not simply borrowed or extended from his blog, but enters fresh in his books. I should also mention that Seth's is about the only blog among my 200 subscriptions whose entries I will never skim over. Purple Cow and The Big Moo motivated me to quit my programming factory day job some months ago and pursue my dream of ending corporate life and starting my own business. Now Tribes has given me what I believe will be the perspective to lead a people, as Seth does. In fact, because I'm in Seth's exclusive tribe (exclusion is a key component of tribes), he sent me (and other members) a surprise free, advanced copy of the book. And now he'll sit back while his members write rave reviews about it and sneeze over the importance of tribes and leadership. That is remarkable.