November 23, 2008

New Seth Godin - Tribes - Hear It For Free

One's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.

The mind, once expanded to the dimension of larger ideas, never returns to its original size.
--- Oliver Wendell Holmes


I discovered Seth Godin through my friend Peter McGarvey over at Sparkplug a couple of years ago. I've since listened to most of his audiobooks and acted on numerous ideas since we share a similar perspective.

Seth keeps doing new things. You can listen to him read his entire new book free from Audible but you'll need to setup an account, install the Audible player and put up with copy protection. Since I listen to books on MP3 CDs in my car, that's a problem. Nonetheless, I went through the hoops and started listening. I later found you can get unprotected MP3 or AAC versions too. So I finished listening in my car.

Seth Do?
What does Seth do? He helps you think in fresh ways. And become remarkable (worth talking about). Best of all, he teaches us to farm, rather than rely on him for fresh produce.

How can Seth give away an entire book for free? Because we pay him with attention and by spreading his message. Book sales probably increase too.

Low Expectations
Someone's knocking at the door.
Somebody's ringing the bell.
Do me a favor, open the door and let 'em in.
--- Paul McCartney, Let 'Em In
I benefited from the insights and encouragement in Seth's previous book, The Dip, which explains when to quit and when to keep going (see my thoughts).

This time I didn't expect much because of what happened during the summer. Seth launched a closed website with a weird spelling: triiibes.com. At present, the tribe (or "triiibe", as they call themselves) has voted to keep everyone else out, except by invitation. I didn't join because I prefer open environments. Even if everyone can join, everyone won't. Those that do may not participate. You can still end up with a small group this way.

Had Seth exhausted his ideas and become conventional?

Out of Ideas?
Tribes, has the subtitle "We Need You To Lead Us". Don't worry. This is not a conventional book about leadership, management and employees. We can all be leaders if we choose. Tribes has many good ideas --- new, revisited and remixed.

A tribe interconnects a leader, a group and an idea. Here are examples: coworkers, soldiers, The Sopranos, Grateful Dead fans, the United Way, a church, readers of this blog, ...

Do You Connect With Seth?
Seth isn't for everyone and does not want to be (see the woodpecker quote). If you've never listened to him before (even if you've read his books), get the free unabridged audio of Tribes. He does not sound like a professional book reader and the book starts off slow. Stick with it for 30 minutes and you'll see whether his ideas touch you. I'm betting you'll like his.

Feel free to share your thoughts.

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