Seth Godin addresses his tribe, on the subject of leading Tribes

by Ryan Milani on August 24, 2009

Are you leading a tribe? In this powerful video from TED 2009, author and social innovator Seth Godin, breaks down technological connectivity and what it means to our sense of belonging to a community or as he puts it, a tribe. I’ve broken out some of the quotes from the video I think are very powerful.

Watch Time: 20 minutes

“And I want to argue that we are living through and are right at the key moment of a change in the way ideas are created and spread and implemented.”

“This method, mass marketing, requires average ideas, because you’re going to the masses.”

“I call it the idea of tribes. What tribes are, is a very simple concept that goes back 50 thousand years. It’s about leading and connecting people and ideas. And it’s something that people have wanted forever. Lots of people are used to having a spiritual tribe, or a church tribe, having a work tribe, having a community tribe. But now, thanks to the internet, thanks to the explosion of mass media, thanks to a lot of other things that are bubbling through our society around the world, tribes are everywhere.”

“You know the pirate tribe is a fascinating one. They’ve got their own flag. They’ve got the eyepatches. You can tell when you’re running into someone in a tribe.”

“That what we do for a living now, all of us, I think, is find something worth changing, and then assemble tribes that assemble tribes that spread the idea and spread the idea. And it becomes something far bigger than ourselves. It becomes a movement.”

“The Beatles did not invent teenagers. They merely decided to lead them.”

  • Nice vid. The book is really good. If you get a chance to read Tribes, I recommend it!
  • Barbara Bonardi
    Thank you for sharing this with me, Ryan. Absolutely engaging. And now ..... to read the book.
  • Ryan
    That's exactly the point. It's nothing new, but what has evolved is the ability to connect. Say you're the only one in your town that has a certain disease like Lyme disease. Instead of feeling isolated, you can go online and connect to others and share tips and tactics for dealing with the disease. So what's really powerful is the evolution of niche tribes.
  • Tribes are everywhere and always have been....from opera subscribers to A's fanatics. I'm not sure how this constitutes a big change... but thanks for posting, Ryan!
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