A Tribal Manual

So, I finished reading Seth Godin's Tribes, meaning, it's time for yet another reviewlet.

For those who don't know Seth Godin, he's, among many things, a professional speaker. I guess I wouldn't make a great pigeon-holing error to call him a professional motivational speaker. He delivers great presentations. Some of his speaks are up on YouTube, and I highly enjoy watch him present whatever he has to say. Oh, and he has written some books, too.

In his latest book (Tribes, that is), he writes about how the world has changed, or is about to change, from ordering people to do your will to making people wanting to do what they want, making sure that, not incidentally, their want happens to coincide with your will. Converting from Bosses (those who boss people around) to Leaders (those who lead people around). Discarding the workforce and having instead, what he calls, a tribe.

A tribe, according to mr. Godin, is a collection of followers that authentically share your vision and idea. He brought up Steve Jobs a few times in his book, which, in my mind, is a prime example of a guy who has a big tribe – people that passionately, almost zealotously (no, that's not a real word), share and follow his vision.

As for the review: I must sadly say that I pretty much revealed the whole content of the book. Oh, I did leave one thing out. Instead of explaining it, let me just recite the subtitle of the book: "We Need You to Lead Us." Yup, that's pretty much it; after giving a definition to his meaning of "a tribe", he tells me that I can, and must, be a leader for my tribe. There's nothing in my way of becoming a leader, other than my own insecurities, fears and imagined hurdles.

In other words, this was a pep-talk book. I could easily imagine this book being a modified transcription of one of his gigs on stage. The book wasn't very organized and there was just header after header. Some longer and some shorter paragraphs. Endless examples of everyday leaders who were nobodies, just like myself, and became people who grew a tribe, and made a difference.

The problem is, I thought this was a book about how to grow a tribe, or even some hints towards that. Instead, this book was about how tribes are important, and that I, the reader, have no hindrances to growing one. The problem wasn't that I didn't buy every word he written – I did – but that I didn't need any convincing of becoming a leader. I also have grown a conscious resistance against motivational presentations (be it oral or written) for various reasons.

So, if you have a rebellious idea in your head, but don't know what to do with it, Tribes is the book I recommend for you. I, on the other hand, know exactly what to do with LightFrame (roughly meaning: working on it until either it takes off or I lose interest).

All things said, even if you don't need convincing, I wouldn't go as far as saying this book is unnecessary or even a bad buy. The 14€ I spent on this paperback were well spent, especially if I compare to the 55€ I spent on a book and a half. No, it's a useful book for everyone to read. It's just more effective on people who think something sucks, know exactly how it would be fixed, but don't fix it, for a reason or another.

PS: My cousin listened to the audiobook version of Tribes, and he liked it a lot. I believe him. Especially, when Seth himself was the narrator, I can believe that this book in a spoken performance would hit home in a much more effective way. Take this with a grain of salt, as this is the only book by Seth Godin that I have read, but he might be a better speaker than writer.