Monday, August 3, 2009

Review: Read and then Lead

|
I just finished reading Tribes by Seth Godin, author of my favorite blog, and one of the most intelligent marketing minds out there. His book is pretty basic. It reads almost exactly like his blogs – in fact, it looks like just a long series of blog posts (I wonder whether he just set aside specific things he wanted to post on that fell under a general category and then published it as a book).

Either way, post for post, this book is one of the more thought provoking and readable business books I’ve opened in a long time. I need to read it again just to make sure I review and remember the important things I’ll want to return to and think about.

The basic premise of the book is that as tools like the internet make connecting people far easier, the potential to become a leader and indeed, the need for more of us to fulfill that potential has increased tenfold for every single one of us. The best idea I got out of the book was the idea that there’s a huge difference between being a manager and a leader. I expound upon it here, but the point is that people listen to managers because they have to – it’s their job. People listen to leaders because leaders inspire them to think, act and live a certain way.

If you’re at all interested in marketing, leading, or just in changing something – this is an easy, energizing read – something you could step into a bookstore and spend an hour reading, and then walk out ready to take action and make things happen.

1 comment:

Salvatore said...

That's interesting - a blog turned into a book. We get proposals like this all the time, and editors feel like it doesn't really translate. Either translation in the fact that a blog shouldn't be a book, or that popular blogs don't necessarily mean big sales. Good to know that there can be success!