In his new book “Tribes” Seth Godin the marketing guru gives way to Seth Godin the life coach. In this thoroughly engaging book, Seth urges us to live a life of purpose, to become leaders, and to throw ourselves wholeheartedly to the pursuit of our dreams.
He builds upon the premises laid out in his previous books to underscore the fact that traditional interruption marketing doesn’t work any more, and that business models based on hierarchical organizations, top down marketing messages and large advertising budgets are a thing of the past.
What this means is good news for you. Seth gives us example after example of how the Internet is allowing ordinary people to speak out, get noticed and connect with each other, in a way and scale that was simply unthinkable even a decade ago.
Blogs are free and can be set up in minutes. People (your tribe) can start following you by just clicking on the RSS icon. Tools like Twitter and Facebook make building communities of like-minded people a snap. If you can’t find a publisher for your book, you can publish it yourself. All the barriers to entry that could have served as a valid excuse years ago no longer apply.
But tools mean nothing if we are not willing to use them to effect change. To make sure we get the point, Seth doesn’t spare nudges. One that I found particularly powerful is this (paraphrasing): instead of taking two weeks off so that you can forget the other fifty, wouldn’t it make more sense to design a life that you don’t have to escape from? How do you react when someone asks you: how was your day?
If the answer is anything but ‘great’, if you’re stuck facing a dead end in your career, or if you are afraid to take the first step and start leading, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of Tribes.
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P.S. You can also download the audio version of “Tribes” free from Audible.com .
