This book, Tribes, is written by best-selling author, Seth Godin. Seth is an American entrepreneur, author and public speaker. He is considered one of the innovative minds on business, leadership, marketing and change management of our time. He popularized new ideas and ways of doing things which he has introduced through his books, like Permission Marketing, The Dip, Unleashing the Idea Virus, Purple Cow, Tribes, All Marketers are Liars, The Big Moo, Small is the New Big, Meatball Sundae, Linchpin and many more. As of this time, he has written thirteen books in which all became best-sellers. He is the founder and CEO of squidoo.com, an online community of writers and one of the top 500 most visited website in the world.
Personally, Seth Godin is one of the people I consider as a modern day hero. I consider him as one of my business and leadership mentor; he’s one of the few people I listen to. His ideas and teachings have guided me during those days I was still starting out in my journey to entrepreneurship. In fact, me and my husband bought and read all his books, and they are all considered as one of our valuable book collections. His books have taught us a lot of new ideas and knowledge that opened us to see and do things differently. And as we applied his ideas and teachings in our decisions and actions, we were able to create a huge change in our life, mentally, emotionally and financially.
Now, we are living a very different lifestyle. From being employees, few years back, we are now full-time entrepreneurs, managing our own virtual businesses. We have the time in our hands and use it as we please because we are not lock in a 8-hour, 5 days a week work routine. And lastly, we are able to do things that can’t be done by average people.
If I haven’t read Seth Godin’s books and ideas, I will have not thought it is possible to live such lifestyle. I may still be locked in my office cubicle doing traditional work routines and earning normal salary paychecks that most average people do. Our choice to adapt new and different ways of doing things gave us the freedom of both time and money.
Previously, I’ve written a review on one of Seth Godin’s best-selling books entitled, The Dip. In this book, Seth Godin changed the old belief that “Winners Never Quit”. He explained why quitting is good. To learn more about it, visit this link: http://lifetofullest.com/the-dip/
In this article, I’d like to introduce another Seth Godin’s innovative ideas and teachings, with the book entitled “Tribes“.
Tribes by Seth Godin have taught me about leadership. It changed my perspective that leaders are only for people who has great skills and intelligence which has hundreds to thousands of subordinates that follows them. I used to think that leadership is about hierarchy, like the one applied in the corporate set-up, wherein there’s one boss, and everyone else will follow whatever the boss wants, may it be logical or not.
In the traditional set-up, leadership is still about the hierarchy, especially when I was still employed. I saw how people fear the leader, the person on top or the boss, because such person has power to promote or demote them. Whenever I see bosses who abuse their position and power to manipulate people, it disgusts me and I lose respect to this kind of people. I guess that’s one reason why I left employment and pursued entrepreneurship.
But back to the time when I was still employed, whenever I’m not doing anything at work, I spend time reading Tribes by Seth Godin. It opened me to the possibility of becoming a leader; even if I was still 23 years-old in those days. Tribes made me realized that I can create and lead a tribe of people with something I’m really passionate about. To lead something that even if it won’t be monetarily rewarding, as long as I have passion for it and I can make a difference to the lives of other people, it will be worth the time spent. I was motivated to create a movement, a community of same interest, that even if years will pass, I will still be enthusiastic to do.
That tribe I’ve created and lead on is this website, Lifetofullest.com. With just a laptop and a word document, I just express my thoughts and life lessons to share it with interested individuals. Surprisingly, one by one, people joined my movement, they’ve followed what I’ve started, they’ve joined Lifetofullest.com and it created huge change it their life. Then they’ve shared it to people they care about so they can experience the same transformation that they did. And as days, weeks, months and years that I continue to write articles for Lifetofullest.com, the member of my tribe or supporters continue to grow.
After over two years since I’ve started this movement and took the initiative to lead, I am still amazed on how it has grown into over thousands of followers and hundred of thousands site visits. Even though I haven’t met in person the most of its members, I feel I am connected with them, with you. I became a leader in my own little way.
But if you are thinking to lead because of monetary benefits, you will be doomed. Because unless you have passion for what you do and you only think of the monetary reward, you’re leading for the wrong reasons. Leading a tribe is not for your own selfish benefits, it’s for the common benefits of the interested people who will join it.
The tribe I’ve created wasn’t financially rewarding, if I’ve think of the monetary benefits, I would have stopped Lifetofullest.com a year ago. But because I have passion for it, and I am inspired by the impact I create with the members who support it, I persist in leading it. And I still see myself doing it for the next couple of years that I’m still capable of learning and writing.
Some people may think that I do Lifetofullest.com because it is rewarding me financially, but it’s not. It may have given me a few dollars when people buy a copy of my books, but it’s not enough to sustain my living expenses. My financial needs are sustained by my other business ventures and investments, but not from writing and leading people in Lifetofullest.com.
Yet I still persist in leading and inspiring people through my writings because it is my passion to do so. For me, I’m just passionate in writing the lessons I’m learning in life and I share it with people who may be in need of those words of advice. And since I’m a continuous learner, as long as I’m learning, I’ll continue writing and teaching life wisdoms in Lifetofullest.com, I’ll continue to lead this tribe I’ve created.
How about you, what are you passionate about? Are you willing to lead without monetary benefit? Are you ready to create a huge change in the world?
If your answer is yes, then do continue reading. If your answer is no, then this book may not be for you. But if you are open and willing to learn something new, this book is worth the read.
Book Content: Tribes by Seth Godin
Great leaders don’t try to please everyone. – Seth Godin
Tribes by Seth Godin is about non-traditional leadership. It’s a small book with 147 pages written in an unconventional way wherein there was no table of contents included. Seth Godin discussed his points in the form of storytelling.
Tribes points out that everyone can be a leader because of the explosions of tribes, groups, and circle of interest, anyone who wants to make a difference can.
Tribes are about faith, belief in an idea and in community. They are grounded in respect and admiration for the leader of the tribe and for the members as well.
Tribes emphasizes passionate people, those people who like what they do, and as such, they are the ones who are able to provide the best work, makes the greatest impact, and the changing the most.
Tribe leaders can also be called as Heretics, they are considered new leaders, those who challenge the status quo and creating a huge difference, whether they are an employee working for a company or an entrepreneur working on their own business.
Another key point of Tribes is that it explains the difference between leadership versus management. Leaders, especially tribe leaders, create change. They don’t follow rules and status quo; leaders make and set their own rules that people will follow. In short, leaders are initiator, they are ambassadors of change.
Last, but not the least important idea of the book Tribes is that there is now a fast, easy, and convenient ways to form and build a community of like-minded people who shares the same interest and that is the internet. If you make use of the internet other than as form of entertainment, it is an easy way to connect and build relationship from anyone all over the world. It’s only up to the leaders and initiators to find what are they really passionate about that they can share and lead with others.
There are more great lessons you will learn when you read the book, Tribes by Seth. I’ve only emphasized those key lessons I’ve personally liked.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, Tribes by Seth Godin is a book that will teach you new ideas and lessons that will help you create change in your own life. Also, it will guide you on how to become a leader yourself. I strongly recommend it to those who are open and willing to embrace change, as well as, to those who are brave enough to take risk and challenge the status quo.
However, change although is good, it’s not an easy path. If you are not willing or able to sacrifice things or people in order to create change, this book is not for you. If you are used to and comfortable with traditional ways of doing things, this book will turn around your world and you may not be able to handle it.
If you are not ready to give up living a traditional lifestyle, and can’t bear the thoughts of disappointing people, especially those who are close to you, plus you are not willing to risk what you have in exchange for uncertainty of success, then this book may not be for you. You may not be able to bear the sacrifices that change will ask of you.
But if you are really tired of the traditional and old system of doing things, and you are willing to take risk, even ready to accept criticism and open to disappoint people to pursue what you believe in, then I strongly recommend you take time to read this book.
For a final note, Seth Godin has said:
The easiest thing is to react…
The second easiest thing is to respond..
But the hardest thing is to initiate….
Start Reading or Listening to ‘Tribes’ by Seth Godin
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