Seth Godin is amazing – his view on marketing as making something remarkable that will attract people vs. shoving it down their throats is such a breath of fresh air in today’s mass marketing culture. I swear, if I see one more “loose 50 lbs in a day” or “Google pays me $1520.34 /month” ad, or if I see other “internet marketers” boasting about how they use their blogs to make thousands a month, I might well lose it.
Has the culmination of mankind’s wisdom really come to the point that this is how we “add value” to our lives?!?! Are people really falling for these things?!?!?
Anyways, in this talk he compares previous generations’ methods of instigating change, through mass production and mass television, to what he believes is today’s internet-catalyzed method: tribes.
“It turns out that it is tribes, not money, not factory, that can change our world, that can change politics,that can align large numbers of people. Not because you force them to do something against their will. But because they wanted to connect.” – Seth Godin
He also speaks about what makes leaders of tribes different:
“What all these people have in common is that they are heretics. Heretics look at the status quo and say: “This will not stand. I can’t abide this status quo. I am willing to stand up and be counted and move things forward. I see what the status quo is. I don’t like it”. That instead of looking at all the little rules, and following each one of them, every once in a while someone stands up and says, “Not me”. Someone stands up and says: “This one is important. We need to organize around it”. And not everyone will. But you don’t need everyone. You just need a few people who will look at the rules, realize they make no sense, and realize how much they want to be connected.” – Seth Godin
Now that’s the kind of leader I want to be! Imagine having that on your resume: “Jon Chui: passionate heretic, doesn’t stick to the status quo, and wants to see real world change.”
It’s so good I’m just going to embed it right here. Have a watch!
(shout of thanks to Vincent @ thetransitioner.org for the direct quotes!)
Jon Chui 