First Friday Book Synopsis

Seth Godin wrote this in his book Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us:  Tribes make our lives better.  And leading a tribe is the best life of all.

Godin is really onto something.  He is at the front edge of something new – identifying it with an old yet now new word, “tribe,” used to describe a new reality.  The reality is this:  everyone is looking to find his/her own tribe.

Here is what prompted this post:  I was reading about the new Drew Barrymore movie Whip It, (her directorial debut) starring Ellen Page, best known from Juno.  The Huffington Post put up the trailer – and right in the middle, in big bold text, it says:  “Find Your Tribe.” (Watch the trailer here).

We can all reflect on the power of this concept.  A tribe provides a place to belong, with tasks to perform — a sense of connection and purpose.  Years ago, I heard this simple description of how to keep people involved in church:  make sure each person has someone to know and something to do.  The principle is universal, and reflects a deep human need.  We need to be connected, and we need purposeful work to fill our days.

Business can provide such a place to be part of a tribe.  In the movie Other People’s Money, Andrew Jorgenson (played by Gregory Peck) addressed the stock holders and included these lines:

A business is worth more than the price of its stock. It’s the place where we earn our living, where we meet our friends, dream our dreams. It is, in every sense, the very fabric that binds our society together.

Jorgenson lost the vote, but spoke truth about what we all long for in the business we engage in.  He was describing a tribe.  (You can listen to the speech at Americanrhetoric.com).

I think we are finding a tribe among book lovers at the First Friday Book Synopsis.  Seth Godin reminds us that we can be part of multiple tribes.  But the call is clear:  Find Your Tribe!