Tribes by Seth Godin

The Book in Three Sentences

1. “A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea.”
2. “A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.”
3. “Tribes need leadership. Sometimes one person leads, sometimes more. People want connection and growth and something new. They want change.”

The Five Big Ideas

1. “You can’t have a tribe without a leader—and you can’t be a leader without a tribe.”
2. “Human beings can’t help it: we need to belong.”
3. “The market needs you (we need you) and the tools are there, just waiting. All that’s missing is you, and your vision and your passion.”
4. “Generous and authentic leadership will always defeat the selfish efforts of someone doing it just because she can.”
5. “Do you believe in what you do? Every day? It turns out that belief happens to be a brilliant strategy.”

Tribes Summary

• “A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea.”
• “A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.”
• “Tribes need leadership. Sometimes one person leads, sometimes more. People want connection and growth and something new. They want change.”
• “You can’t have a tribe without a leader—and you can’t be a leader without a tribe.”
• “Human beings can’t help it: we need to belong.”
• “One of the most powerful of our survival mechanisms is to be part of a tribe, to contribute to (and take from) a group of like-minded people. We are drawn to leaders and to their ideas, and we can’t resist the rush of belonging and the thrill of the new.”
• “We want to belong not to just one tribe, it turns out, but too many.”
• “The market needs you (we need you) and the tools are there, just waiting. All that’s missing is you, and your vision and your passion.”
• “Generous and authentic leadership will always defeat the selfish efforts of someone doing it just because she can.”
• “Tribes are about faith—about belief in an idea and in a community. And they are grounded in respect and admiration for the leader of the tribe and for the other members as well.”
• “Do you believe in what you do? Every day? It turns out that belief happens to be a brilliant strategy.”
• “Heretics are the new leaders. The ones who challenge the status quo, who get out in front of their tribes, who create movements.”
• “Leadership, on the other hand, is about creating change that you believe in.”
• “Marketing is the act of telling stories about the things we make—stories that sell and stories that spread.”
• “If you want to grow, you need to find customers who are willing to join you or believe in you or donate to you or support you.”
• “Leaders make a ruckus.”
• “A leader can help increase the effectiveness of the tribe and its members by • transforming the shared interest into a passionate goal and desire for change; • providing tools to allow members to tighten their communications; and • leveraging the tribe to allow it to grow and gain new members.”
• “Senator Bill Bradley defines a movement as having three elements: 1. a narrative that tells a story about who we are and the future we’re trying to build 2. A connection between and among the leader and the tribe 3. Something to do—the fewer limits, the better.”
• “A crowd is a tribe without a leader. A crowd is a tribe without communication. Most organizations spend their time marketing to the crowd. Smart organizations assemble the tribe.”
• “An individual artist needs only a thousand true fans in her tribe.”
• “Whatever the status quo is, changing it gives you the opportunity to be remarkable.”
• “In a battle between two ideas, the best one doesn’t necessarily win. No, the idea that wins is the one with the most fearless heretic behind it.”
• “The essence of leadership is being aware of your fear (and seeing it in the people you wish to lead). No, it won’t go away, but awareness is the key to making progress.”
• “What people are afraid of isn’t failure. It’s blame. Criticism.”
• “We choose not to be remarkable because we’re worried about criticism.”
• We hesitate to create innovative movies, launch new human resource initiatives, and design a menu that makes diners take notice, or give an audacious sermon because we’re worried, deep down, that someone will hate it and call us on it.”
• “One bad review doesn’t ruin my day because I realize what a badge of honor it is to get a bit of criticism at all. It means that I confounded expectations—that I didn’t deliver the sequel or the simple, practical guide that some expected. It means that, in fact, I did something worth remarking on.”
• “The products and services that get talked about are the ones that are worth talking about.”
• “So the challenge, as you contemplate your next opportunity to be boring or remarkable, is to answer these two questions: 1. ‘If I get criticized for this, will I suffer any measurable impact? 2. Will I lose my job, get hit upside the head with a softball bat, or lose important friendships?’”
• “How can I create something that critics will criticize?”
• “I think you know the answer—great leaders focus on the tribe and only the tribe.”
• “Great leaders don’t want the attention, but they use it. They use it to unite the tribe and to reinforce its sense of purpose.”
• “The first thing a leader can focus on is the act of tightening the tribe.”
• “A tribe that communicates more quickly, with alacrity and emotion, is a tribe that thrives.”
• “Leadership is scarce because few people are willing to go through the discomfort required to lead.”
• “The one path that never works is the most common one: doing nothing at all.”
• “You’re not going to be able to grow your career or your business or feed the tribe by going after most people.”
• “Change isn’t made by asking permission. Change is made by asking forgiveness, later.”
• “Leaders who set out to give are more productive than leaders who seek to get.”
• “The easiest thing is to react. The second easiest thing is to respond. But the hardest thing is to initiate.”
• “Reacting is intuitive and instinctive and usually dangerous.”
• “Responding is a much better alternative.”
• “This isn’t about having a great idea (it almost never is). The great ideas are out there, for free, on your neighbourhood blog. Nope, this is about taking initiative and making things happen”.
• “I define sheep walking as the outcome of hiring people who have been raised to be obedient and giving those brain-dead jobs and enough fear to keep them in line.”
• “You can always claim the career you deserve merely by refusing to walk down the same path as everyone else just because everyone else is already doing it.”
• “Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you ought to set up a life you don’t need to escape from.”
• “The only thing that makes people and organizations great is their willingness to be not great along the way.”
• “The desire to fail on the way to reaching a bigger goal is the untold secret of success.”
• “Growth doesn’t come from persuading the most loyal members of other tribes to join you.”
• “Change almost never fails because it’s too early. It almost always fails because it’s too late.”
• “Caring is the key emotion at the centre of the tribe. Tribe members care what happens, to their goals and to one another.”
• “Tribes grow when people recruit other people. That’s how ideas spread as well.”
• “If your organization requires success before commitment, it will never have either.”
• “Part of leadership (a big part of it, actually) is the ability to stick with the dream for a long time. Long enough that the critics realize that you’re going to get there one way or another… so they follow.”
• “What leaders do: they give people stories they can tell themselves. Stories about the future and about change.”
• “Waiting doesn’t pay. Saying yes does.”