# Tribes  ## Metadata - Author: [[Seth Godin]] - Full Title: Tribes - Category: #books ## Highlights - A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate. ([Location 134](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=134)) - You can’t have a tribe without a leader—and you can’t be a leader without a tribe. ([Location 140](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=140)) - 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. ([Location 146](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=146)) - Generous and authentic leadership will always defeat the selfish efforts of someone doing it just because she can. ([Location 186](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=186)) - Heretics are the new leaders. The ones who challenge the status quo, who get out in front of their tribes, who create movements. ([Location 235](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=235)) - Leadership, on the other hand, is about creating change that you believe in. ([Location 260](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=260)) - Leaders have followers. Managers have employees. Managers make widgets. Leaders make change. ([Location 262](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=262)) - Marketing is the act of telling stories about the things we make—stories that sell and stories that spread. Marketing elects presidents, and marketing raises money for charity. Marketing also determines if the CEO stays or goes (Carly Fiorina learned this the hard way). Most of all, marketing influences markets. Marketing used to be about advertising, and advertising is expensive. Today, marketing is about engaging with the tribe and delivering products and services with stories that spread. ([Location 277](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=277)) - tribes go much further. That’s because in addition to the messages that go from the marketer or the leader to the tribe, there are the messages that go sideways, from member to member, and back to the leader as well. ([Location 334](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=334)) - If leadership is the ability to create change your tribe believes in, and the market demands change, then the market demands leaders. ([Location 344](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=344)) - Leaders must become aware of how the organization works, because this awareness allows them to change it. ([Location 349](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=349)) - Great leaders create movements by empowering the tribe to communicate. They establish the foundation for people to make connections, as opposed to commanding people to follow them. ([Location 359](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=359)) - So 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. ([Location 373](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=373)) - unlike the residue of stuff, the tribal connections you can create with leadership grow; they don’t fade. ([Location 391](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=391)) - three steps: motivate, connect, and leverage. ([Location 406](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=406)) - Everything I did was for us, not for me. I didn’t manage; I led. ([Location 427](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=427)) - A crowd is a tribe without a leader. A crowd is a tribe without communication. ([Location 429](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=429)) - Whatever the status quo is, changing it gives you the opportunity to be remarkable. ([Location 482](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=482)) - 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. ([Location 549](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=549)) - What people are afraid of isn’t failure. It’s blame. Criticism. ([Location 589](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=589)) - if I had written a boring book, there’d be no criticism. No conversation. The products and services that get talked about are the ones that are worth talking about. ([Location 608](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=608)) - they understand that the most powerful way to enable is to be statueworthy: by getting out front, by making a point, by challenging convention, and by speaking up. Those are brave acts, and bravery begets statues. ([Location 634](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=634)) - Leadership is a choice. It’s the choice to not do nothing. Lean in, back off, but don’t do nothing. ([Location 725](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=725)) - Others will scoff and move on, wondering what the obsession is all about. That’s what makes it a tribe, of course. There are insiders and outsiders. ([Location 767](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=767)) - This leads to an interesting thought: you get to choose the tribe you will lead. ([Location 792](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=792)) - Change isn’t made by asking permission. Change is made by asking forgiveness, later. ([Location 846](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=846)) - The art of leadership is understanding what you can’t compromise on. ([Location 932](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=932)) - These religions exist for one reason—to reinforce our faith. ([Location 973](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=973)) - If religion comprises rules you follow, faith is demonstrated by the actions you take. ([Location 981](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=981)) - The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow. ([Location 1241](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=1241)) - to switch sides is to admit that we made a mistake. ([Location 1342](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=1342)) - If you’re trying to persuade the tribe at work to switch from one strategy to the other, don’t start with the leader of the opposition. Begin instead with the passionate individuals who haven’t been embraced by other tribes yet. ([Location 1347](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=1347)) - The largest enemy of change and leadership isn’t a “no.” It’s a “not yet.” ([Location 1350](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=1350)) - “It’s not time,” “Take it easy,” “Wait and see,” “It’s someone else’s turn”—none of these stalls are appropriate for a leader in search of change. There’s a small price for being too early, but a huge penalty for being too late. The longer you wait to launch an innovation, the less your effort is worth. ([Location 1356](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=1356)) - Hope without a strategy doesn’t generate leadership. Leadership comes when your hope and your optimism are matched with a concrete vision of the future and a way to get there. People won’t follow you if they don’t believe you can get to where you say you’re going. ([Location 1376](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=1376)) - Your tribe communicates. They probably don’t do it the way you would; they don’t do it as efficiently as you might like, but they communicate. The challenge for the leader is to help your tribe sing, whatever form that song takes. ([Location 1394](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=1394)) - People want to be sure you heard what they said—they’re less focused on whether or not you do what they said. ([Location 1433](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=1433)) - If your organization requires success before commitment, it will never have either. ([Location 1472](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=1472)) - 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. ([Location 1473](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=1473)) - Credit isn’t the point. Change is. ([Location 1518](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=1518)) - You can’t manage without knowledge. You can’t lead without imagination. ([Location 1526](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=1526)) - People don’t believe what you tell them. They rarely believe what you show them. They often believe what their friends tell them. They always believe what they tell themselves. What leaders do: they give people stories they can tell themselves. Stories about the future and about change. ([Location 1532](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=1532)) - Without someone to say yes, all that’s left are unpublished writers who tell themselves no. Leadership is now like that. No one gives you permission or approval or a permit to lead. You can just do it. The only one who can say no is you. ([Location 1539](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001FA0LAI&location=1539))