Tribes is the second book I’ve read by Seth Godin. Purple Cow was a pretty awesome read, so when several people recommended this book to me, I picked it up eagerly.
I have to admit I was a little disappointed. While it did contain some great thoughts, none of it was really new. Seth Godin is supposed to be some kind of marketing genius, so I expected a little more than “to succeed, go against the flow” well…duh.
The book itself is short, half the size of the iPad I’m typing on right at the moment and only 160 pages. Despite that, it took me several days to read, just because I could’t really get into it.
Seth Godin did, however, offer some great examples of leaders who picked up their community from nothing and became one of the most popular groups in the world. I really found it interesting that Starbucks came from a 3 location struggling cafe. That stuff is cool.
My biggest pet peeve of the book is somewhat political – I found it both laughable and strange that Godin would use Jimmy Carter as an example of selfless charity. Carter was the worst president of all time, and nothing he does is ever selfless.
Other than that though, I’d say it was a solid business book, and worth if it you haven’t read any or many business books yet. If you have, just be aware that there’s a lot of repetition as far as ideas go.
You can find the Tribes at Amazon for only $13.68.