Seth Godin recently released a new book “Tribes” which encourages anyone with a strong belief in something to find to like minded people become a leader, to do something about it. “You don’t have to try to be the best and most relevant for everyone. If you can get 1000 dedicated people following you, and they each bring 1000 more, then you have won”. Trying to appease the masses at once is futile. He attributes this tribe forming strategy to the the success of the iphone, gmail, and facebook, each of which started as a closed ‘tribe’ of insiders who really loved using each product.
Towards the end of this interview Seth said something remarkable. You see, he doesn’t use the popular social networking tool “Twitter” or “facebook“.
They’re not for me…being the best in the world is extremely valuable, being the fifth best is not very valuable….I am the best in the world at having a marketing blog…[but] if I started using Twitter, I would have to stop being the best in the world at [blogging and writing marketing books] because I would have no time, and I wouldn’t be the best in the world at using twitter either because there are people who are way better at it.
Three things I’m going to take away from hearing this.
1. To make change, you have to find what you’re good at and what you’re passionate about (find your tribe).
2. Focus on that.
3. Don’t let other things distract you.
In other words, don’t be a jack of all trades.
It’s easier said than done. I haven’t found one thing that I’m good at or is passionate about, in fact, I have found a couple many, and need to focus on one. I have over commited myself to too doing to many things at once, hence can’t focus on being the best at one thing.
When my current commitments are over, I hope I look back to this post to reflect. Only then can I start fresh to discover what I’m best at at focus on it.
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