Seth Godin's Tribes review: lead by living with passion

Seth Godin's Tribes is the newest addition to his ongoing canon of easily-readable ideas on changing the world. Applicable in business but also your personal life, Tribes is both an extension of earlier ideas (like spreading ideaviruses and permission marketing), while at the same time going to the most basic of prolific human groupings: the tribe. In here, defined as:

"… any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea."

Godin uses anecdotes (and the occasional diagram) to support the ideas he presents. If you want hard data paired with human stories, you won't find it here, but I was encouraged to look up some of the examples he gave which I hadn't heard of before, like Brad Garlinghouse. As such, this book is as prone to criticism of being "simplistic" as Seth's other tomes, but that's really dependent on what you get out of it. As inspirational guide (like Rolf Potts' Vagabonding), it works. Nary a word is wasted, the sentences flow like liquid butter — consistent with Seth's belief that "ideas that spread, win" which is mentioned here — and you can read it in a day (as I did) and come out smiling. Don't mistake it for a technical manual or practical step-by-step guide, because while it encourages you to "lead", it doesn't go into deep specifics.

In that, Tribes succeeds at baiting intuitive aptitude, and leaves room for followup: for instance, what about tribes going to "war" with each other? What about measuring the serious risks of being a rabble-rouser? Or what to do when your role in the tribe is challenged by another? Some of the answers can be inferred (e.g., break off and form a new tribe that hopefully doesn't get stale soon), but they aren't really explored.

Remarkable: Tribes stresses the importance of leadership while not dismissing the contributions of the group. It's an "AND" (rather than an "or") approach which I prefer, since while people may argue whether the chicken or the egg came first, we need both.

Seth is a grandmaster at reviewing conventional things in a refreshing way, from his classic "very good is not nearly good enough" to his psychological reversal of contrary terms like "The safer you play your plans for the future, the riskier it actually is." One of my faves is on the back flap: "It's not easy, but it's easier than you probably imagine."

If you're a longtime Seth Godin fan, you may be wondering: "Is there a clever word he coins in this book?" and yes, Seth rings his tradition true with "sheepwalker", a defender of the status quo. In my worldview, those are people who leak too much slop.

One of the most powerful things about this book is how it's written to speak directly to YOU, which creates a tribe about Tribes, and makes anyone who doesn't get it feel like an outsider. Which in a way, proves its point (much as a word-of-mouth marketing book succeeds by being shared via that distribution model).

Tribes doesn't have any chapters. Just a continual flow of sections topped by headers, as if they were blog posts. In fact, you can find some of the same material (in both style and substance) on Seth's blog, but there's still something nice about presenting it succinctly on paper, and I appreciated this easy-to-hold compilation.

A brisk read with only one spelling inconsistency I noticed ("Ghandi" on page 139).

What I got out of it: increased confidence to make the status quo my ho.

I highly recommend Tribes!

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