I'm wrapping up my second run through Seth Godin's "Tribes". I feel like inspired but also like I need to go to confession. He nailed me in a few places, namely fear. Fear and I have had a Lazarus Anti-Lazarus struggle for a while. I resisted this book at first. Seemed a bit "self help" to me. Guess I was being more fundamentalist and less curious. Plus it was recommended by almost everyone and I have a habit of resisting the thing that the crowd endorses. Thinking perhaps I confused crowd with tribe now? I don't know, but enough people that I either trust recommended it so I decided to give it a shot after I read "Rework" and enjoyed it. I can't tell you if the book changed my life and it sounds ridiculous to say, but I hope it did. I hope I take what I have taken from this book and apply it to my life and just get on with it! The thing is, this IS a self help book. But it is truly a self help book. There is no answer in this book, unless you find it yourself. This book has no 'roadmap to success' that will fit everyone and comes guaranteed with little risk. It's a very smart man who has thought through the state of the modern world and has some opinions that many including me think, for the most part, are truths. He's a leader who wants to encourage more leaders and better followers. I'm not just a fawning blind fan now after one book. Some parts I'm not 100% with him. I'm not saying this is a new bible that we should all follow blindly. In fact that would be the exact opposite of what this book is about. (But how many times has that happened to a leader?) I'm just saying the book spoke to me on both a personal and professional level and gave great clarity to my own professional situation and it may do the same for you. I don't know if I'm a leader that Seth is looking for. I don't know if I have it in me yet. I hope so and this is what I am exploring now. What I do know is that either way, I am ready to follow and work with something I do believe in. Give it a shot, it's a good read.
