The Power of Tribes In Your Business
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009I’m currently devouring the new book from Seth Godin called Tribes and have come away with a better understanding of leadership and 5 main points.
This is not intended to be a book review but more a way to help you improve and make your business more profitable.
If you don’t spend the small amount to invest in it you’re an idiot so go and read it because it’s well worth this small investment. Your wife and family will thank you because you’re making way more money.
Take a little bit of extra time to jot down interesting golden nuggets or highlight meaninful sentences.
Going back and reviewing these periodically once a month or once every other month is the best way for the material to sink in, in a lasting fashion.
I say this because you’ve probably seen the statistics from various scientific studies which show the average reader only comprehends 40 to 50% of what is read and only retains 10% of that info after two weeks time.
This means on the 15th day after you read the book you only remember 5% of it. Those are bad odds and you want to take steps to put the odds back in your favor. “Leaders are readers” after all.
Reading has its own health benefits to your mental well being. But as a businessperson you want to get more out of it.
So here are my five takeaways:
1. A tribe is a group of people which requires only two things: a shared interest, and a way to communicate. The best tribes globally have passionate leaders.
2. Tribes had been restricted by geography but the internet opened em up wide. Because of the Internet they are much easier to organize and can move more swiftly than at any time in history.
3. Small tribes who are passionate beat big tribes who are indifferent.
4. Small tribes of 1,000 can feed you for life.
5. Initiative/innovation is the key and most needed component in today’s world. People will scratch and claw your eyes out before finally realizing the change was good. The reason innovators are so valuable is because they’re so rare.
As a bonus, one other take away I got from the book was that effective leaders are out ahead of the pack and many onlookers are telling them to stop because they’ll never make it.
When you look at the most successful and wealthy people in our society people like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Oprah Winfrey the common thread they each have is challenging the status quo and doing what everyone around them said was impossible.
The key is they had faith in what they were doing and ACTUALLY WENT OUT AND DID IT.
The naysayers will always be there talking instead of doing.
Which tribe do you want membership in?