Book 3 of my 2009 Reading List was “Tribes” By Seth Godin. I heard Seth speak in person at Catalyst 2008 and loved it. At the conference he gave out 13,000 or so copies of this book. WOW!

This guy is a genius when it comes to leadership, marketing, and awesome random thoughts on other subjects. You can check out his blog here…its easily THE BEST business blog out there today.

Just to illustrate to you how badly you need to read this book, you need to know that I read it twice. Back to back. That’s how much it impacted me. The second I finished it, I flipped right back to page one and started reading again.

Here are some quick hits. This IS NOT a summary of the book. GET IT. READ IT.

• The rush from stability is a huge opportunity for you.
• Leaders don’t care very much for organizational structure or an “official blessing.” They use passion and ideas to lead people as opposed to using threats and bureaucracy to manage them.
• Three steps: motivate, connect, leverage.
• “Everything I did was for US, not for ME.”
• A crowd is a tribe without a leader or communication. Most organizations spend their time marketing to the crowd. Smart organizations assemble the tribe.
• Defending mediocrity is exhausting.
• True leaders have figured out that the real win is turning a casual fan into a true one.
• The idea that wins is the one with the most fearless heretic behind it.
• Great leaders focus on the tribe and only the tribe.
• Change isn’t made by asking permission. Change is made by asking for forgiveness later.
• The ONLY thing holding you back from becoming the kind of person who changes things is this: lack of faith.
• Leaders who set out to give are more productive than leaders who seek out to get.
• “Everyone will think it’s stupid! Everyone says it’s impossible!” Guess what? Everyone works in the balloon factory and everyone is wrong. (You’ll have to read it to see what the balloon factory is all about.)
• Everyone believes that what they’ve got is probably better than the risk and fear that comes with change.
• Isn’t it sad that so many of us have a job where we spend two weeks avoiding the stuff we have to do fifty weeks out of the year? WOW!
• The secret is being willing to be wrong.
• The posture of a leader is this: if you hear my idea but don’t believe it, that’s not your fault; it’s mine.
• Change almost never fails because it is too early. It almost always fails because it is too late.
• How do you be sure to get credit for an idea? Real leaders don’t care. Credit isn’t the point. Change is.

Main idea in Tribes? If you think leadership is only for other people, you’re wrong. We need YOU to lead us.

Get it. Read it.

I want to remind you of this awesome tool to manage, track, and trade your books. Go check it out.