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tribes

I felt Seth Godin’s LINCHPIN was “Nothing New”, but…

by Dr.Mani on January 26, 2010

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LINCHPIN - Seth Godin

Seth Godin is remarkable. Always. At least, I think he is.

But when I read an excerpt of his new book, LINCHPIN – let’s just say I felt a bit let down!

In this post, I’m going to explore WHY.

First, a quick reminder about the fallacy of trying to judge or describe the whole after seeing only a part – like the 5 blind men who described an elephant variously as being like a rope, a tree trunk, a knife, a rough carpet and a thick snake (after feeling, respectively, the tail, leg, tusk, back and trunk).

All I’ve read is the digital excerpt, NOT the entire book.

Still, I had hoped for some a-ha moments in even that sample – so when I shared this short message with a good friend inside TRIIIBES.com, I wasn’t sure what to expect in reply. I wrote to Marcos Gaser:

“Maybe Seth set his bar too high with Tribes. Maybe I wasn’t in the right mood while reading it. Maybe Linchpin just describes what’s in my daily routine. Whatever the reason, I just didn’t find that magical ‘A-ha’ in the excerpt, the way I’m used to with Seth’s writing. I’ll give it another read a day or two later, to see if it’s ‘just me’!”

Well, let’s just say I didn’t need to read it again. Because Marcos’ short, insightful reply made the reasons clear to me in a flash of brilliance…

I am not a marketer by study or experience, and so Seth Godin’s earlier books had many a-ha moments – because they were about marketing.

TRIBES, and more so LINCHPIN, are not about marketing any more – they are about personal development.

LINCHPIN (and even TRIBES, in a way) is about throwing off the shackles of ‘conventional mediocrity’, about ‘following one’s heart’ and ‘making a difference’, about ‘attracting your audience by being unique, special, meaningful’ – and those are things I am ALREADY working on, understand better, have a certain experience with!

The essential premise is that “Everyone is an ARTIST”. And here, in Seth’s words, “artist means someone willing to stand up, stand out and make change.”

Maybe more traditional, corporate and ‘factory world’ readers in Seth’s audience (who may have viewed his earlier work with some ennui and a “So, what’s new?” attitude) will find many a-ha moments in LINCHPIN, the way I did in Purple Cow, or Free Prize Inside, or All Marketers Are Liars, or Survival Is Not Enough.

Like Rajesh Setty says in his very nice review of LINCHPIN,

“In LINCHPIN, Seth focuses on BEING rather than DOING. Seth’s compassionate plea is for everyone to ‘be’ an artist – be a Linchpin rather than a cog in the wheel.“

Does this sound like a familiar theme from my blog posts here?

Having explored how difficult, scary, yet fulfilling it is to stop being a cog in the wheel, and for many years seeing one important purpose of my own blog to inspire as many others as possible to stop hesitating and take that plunge to ‘follow their heart’, I have probably instinctively tuned out much of what I read in LINCHPIN as being “stuff I already know, realize and completely agree with”… and might have dismissed on that ground alone!

So, thank you Marcos for showing me why I probably thought LINCHPIN was “nothing new”… and how, for that very reason, I need to tell many people who read my blog to get their own copy of LINCHPIN – and then think hard about making that decision to make a difference, in any way they like!

In his interview with Hugh McLeod, Seth Godin ends with:

“My work is done here, as the saying goes. To unleash something like this on the world, to go out this far on a limb and have people support you and embrace you and run with it… it’s the most ama­zing feeling.”

Do you want that feeling for yourself?

Then you should read LINCHPIN – and then follow YOUR heart.

Another good reason to do it is because, usually, reading Seth Godin’s books has nice “fringe benefits” – like TRIBES got me entry into Triiibes.com, a place where I’ve met some amazing LINCHPINS.

Here are a few reviews of LINCHPIN by fellow Triiibesters – you may find them interesting too:

Today, on his blog, Seth said: “It took me ten years to write this book. I’m hoping it changes a few people.”

The book is LINCHPIN.

You can get your copy here.

Read it – then decide.

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8 Things Seth Godin Did To My Head This Year!

by Dr.Mani on July 30, 2009

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It has been a year since I was introduced to TRIIIBES.com, the exclusive social network that’s a brainchild of marketing genius, thought leader and bestselling author Seth Godin.

Apart from everything else it has done, TRIIIBES messed with my head – in a good way. And it got me to do some things that I hadn’t done before. For which I owe the Super-Squid Master a huge big thank you.

Since Seth is a person focused on ACTION, not merely ideas, I’m going to list only the things that actually got done, not the many more that have been sparked off by ideas, discussions and connections from within the Triiibe.

These are eight things that happened since I joined Triiibes.com – and that may never have happened without it!

1. I published my first print book. It’s called “Think, Write & Retire”. It launches on August 25th – and I’m trying to get it a lot of publicity because it ties in with #2.

2. I created the Heart Kids Tribe. This is a passionate and purpose-driven network of people who care enough for under-privileged children born with heart defects that they are willing to commit to making a difference in their lives.

3. I built a network for the Think, Write and Retire tribe. While it was in part intended to be a marketing vehicle for the book, it is a lot more. It’s a place where infopreneurs connect, engage and share – and it is working!

4. I morphed my email/ezine list into a tribe. Turned it from an anonymous list of email addresses into a social network that is ‘private access’ – and a comfortable, supportive place where people help other people.

5. I applied for a TED fellowship. Others in the Triiibes.com community were actively involved in TED, and that brought it on to my radar. Then, I discovered there was a TED India event – so have applied for a fellowship!

6. I blueprinted a donor community plan for my CHD work. It involves writing another book, creating another social network, and building another tribe – one that is focused on making heart surgery available to the 45,000+ kids who are waiting.

7. I wrote and published a PASSION manifesto on ChangeThis.com – because Seth advised all his tribe to distill their thinking into a manifesto, and share it with the world!

8. I made a LOT of new friends inside TRIIIBES.com. That’s probably the BIGGEST benefit of being in this vibrant, passionate, exciting network. And time will prove that it’s the most effective practical application of the concept in Seth Godin’s groundbreaking book, TRIBES.

For all of this, thank you Seth.

And thank you, TRIIIBES.com

See more Triiibes.com tributes here

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