Tribes - Seth Godin

 

According to Seth Godin, a tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader and connected to an idea. For millions of years we, human beings, have been part of one tribe or another.  In the past, tribes were mostly dependent of locations for obvious reasons.  With internet in full swing today, the barrier of location is largely removed.  We are free to connect with any part of world with a single click.

 

This change has made pure essence of tribe more obvious. All the inhibitors to become a leader of tribe were all but removed.  Anyone with passion and idea can be a leader of a tribe whether it is in a small community or in the global village. “We need you to lead us.”, the subtitle of this book urges readers to become a leader of a tribe.  Leading a group of people is something uncomfortable for most of us, but we have all the qualities of leaders if we are not content with current standard.  In our time, standard means mediocre and initiative means happiness. 

 

The book is rather short, but has valuable quotes;

 

l  "Leadership is scarce because few people are willing to go through the discomfort required to lead. This scarcity makes leadership valuable

 

l  "When you fall in love with the system you lose the ability to grow."

 

l  "At first, the new thing is rarely as good as the old thing was. If you need the alternative to be better than the status quo from the very start, you'll never begin."

 

l  "Being charismatic doesn't make you a leader. Being a leader makes you charismatic."

 

l  “Change is made by people, by leaders who are proud to be called heretics because their faith is never in question.”

 

l  “Leadership almost always involves thinking and acting like the underdog. That’s because leaders work to change things, and the people who are winning rarely does.”

 

l " Leaders challenge status quo."

 

l  “An organization, any organization, needs people who aren’t just willing to follow, but are eager to follow.”

 

The book is very short and easy to read.  I probably need to read several times to have all those good words in my bones.