A tribe united by purpose is stronger, more resilient, more likely to change the world for the better…
But very few tribes I’ve ever known (if any) are fully united. Most “tribe members” are driven to serve themselves primarily, and leverage the community to further their own agendas. These people eventually destroy the tribe.
There are really only Two Tribes:
1. Those who are driven by greed to serve themselves; and
2. Those who are driven primarily to serve something Greater than themselves.
You can actually serve yourself better, by serving the “greater good” first. I’ll give you a personal example in a minute, but you might want to play this video first:
Let me repeat that again: You can serve yourself better, by serving the greater good First.
This video is actually a great example of how working for Good first, actually helps you in the long run.
I happened to come across this homespun video of the Black Eyed Peas “One Tribe” song today by an interesting YouTuber embedded in a good blog post. I got the link on my Twitter feed from someone (sorry, she’s lost in the twitter archives) who had found it and tweeted it to her followers. The video’s had about 130,000+ views disseminating a powerful, uniting message.
What happens now? This homespun video producer gets a lot of attention, and built-in credibility. But is he working for himself?
If we really are all “One” — then working for the greater good is ACTUALLY working for yourself.
Those who are devoted to do something bigger themselves — not as a self-serving strategy, but as a natural, honest impulse to make a contribution, make an impact, and make a difference — those people will naturally, organically rise to the top, and they will stay at the top. After they’re gone, their lives will be celebrated.
Those who claw their way to the top, do whatever they can to accomplish their goals, manipulate and use other tribe members and leaders to accomplish their mission, and step on whoever they need to on their way up — they will fall as quickly as they rose. The forces of nature dictate their inevitable misery: the hollow resonance of the misery they’ve caused will come back to them, and whatever’s left of their spirit will wither, if it doesn’t kill them first.
They may also be celebrated on the way, and after their death, but they will be celebrated by the same forces of darkness that drove them forward and pushed them to the top.
“But what about my family, my mortgage, my expenses…?
Everyone has bills to pay, and it SUCKS when you can’t pay them (believe me, I know). Granted, you may have a family to feed, a mission to support, or someplace you’re trying to get. These are not inherently bad things.
Without a self-serving goal, most people find it hard to get anything done. Indeed, it’s possible little of anything would get done without a little ego in the mix.
But I repeat: when you work PERSISTENTLY out of service, from the heart, and for Good — the other stuff WILL take care of itself.
A personal example:
I recently decided to start working more out of service, and less out of the need to “survive.” Even though my company is specifically designed to empower the change-makers of the world to accomplish their mission online, there is a distinct profit component. After all, it IS a company. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, and profit is NOT the sole objective, the objective is to make a difference and be of service.
Nonetheless, my direction, had become somewhat limited by the need to generate more profit to pay for more and ever-growing expenses (both business and personal).
So, I was sitting in meditation, and I realized that in my quest to formulate a stronger business model, I had actually started to evacuate the true spirit of the most important aspect of my business: the aspect of service.
I immediately began reaching out to my friends, and followers and contacts, and asking them — how I could really be of service to them. I began to think about how I could really be of service to the world, and use my knowledge to make a real difference. I decided to offer minimalist websites starting at only $500 (instead of my usual $2,000 full-service starting price) for people who don’t need a lot of customization (and don’t mind getting their hands dirty, and learning how to add their own content and pics themselves).
When you think in terms of using your gifts to help people out, and you ACT on that impulse, good things happen. They always will. When I think in that way, I always experience big growth and spurts in my business. There’s a powerful energy behind it. I’m currently fielding a bunch of new projects and offers, and being invited into high-profile opportunities that would not have existed otherwise.
If we really are all “one tribe” — that means sharing the positive message actually helps ALL people.
Each person that’s touched by the message in that video, only makes it stronger and more potent. Each person that supports that artist, is in fact supporting the force of Good in the world, and multiplying the message exponentially.
I read Seth Godin’s Tribes a while back of course, and I thought he made a fairly persuasive, if somewhat patched together argument for standing up, standing for something, and becoming a leader.
As Heather put it:
I love the idea of the words, “One Tribe”. It gives one a sense of belonging and acceptance that may not have been experienced before. We all want to feel like we are connected with others who possess congruent qualities that we may possess. In the social media networking circles, a tribe is a group of people who share similar interests and support each other in those interests by syndicating (promoting) each others’ blog posts and sharing valuable content with the rest of the world.
I think the tribes concept is valuable, but antiquated. More and more I’m beginning to see a different model of the concept of tribes emerge.
Tribes change the world when united as a unified force. They also fight for darkness.
The concept of tribes is equal parts limiting and expanding. If there are different tribes, than some will compete, and fight one another. Some will unite with other tribes and form stronger and stronger forces. Certain tribe leaders of similar interests will meet, make truces, form agreements.
But tribe members are fickle and they switch sides, they jump to different tribes, they abandon ship.
More and more, I’m starting to see that the whole tribe concept really boils down to something far simpler:
What I’m seeing now is Two Tribes: The people that work for themselves, and the people that work for something bigger than themselves.
If you’re “neutral” you will tend to be co-opted by the forces of selfishness, greed, and ultimately destruction. These are the dominant forces of the modern age. They’re dominant, because they’re powerful. Personal gratification, luxury, sensual enjoyment.
Nothing wrong with these experiences, and with wanting them too. Problem is, the most direct path to achieving them is often the most destructive. Pleasure is seductive, and greed destroys.
To be sure, the people that work for something bigger, are more often than not, really just working for themselves. It’s all fine and good to work for yourself, you just want to try and not to make it the FIRST priority above all else and all others.
First and foremost: Work for something bigger than yourself. Be an artist in whatever you do. A rising tide lifts all ships. (Seth talks about this concept in length in his latest book Linchpin — follow-up to “Tribes” — and one that I absolutely adore and cherish.)
The world is changing…fast…don’t be left behind
The world of business and innovation and entrepreneurialism is changing in a big way. I’m talking REVOLUTIONS here, for real. The people who are working for greed will be left behind, as the old ways of business and commerce are redefined by new generations of people who are working for something bigger and more beautiful then their private selfish interests.
I’m feeling more optimistic about our collective future lately than I have in years… I think it’s in the air.
Or maybe I’m really just unrealistic, and overly optimistic…
Am I just naive, or is it really happening…?
Here’s:
An excerpt from the Black Eyed Peas One Tribe Song (iTunes) Lyrics:
One love, one blood, one people
One heart, one beat, we equal
Connected like the internet
United that’s how we do
Lets break walls, so we see through
Let love and peace lead you
We could overcome the complication cause we need to
Help each other, make these changes
Brother, sister, rearrange this
The way I’m thinking that we can change this bad condition
Wait, use you mind and not your greed
Let’s connect and then proceed
This is something I believe
We are one, we’re all just people…We are one people
Let’s cast amnesia
Forget about all that evil
Forget about all that evil, that evil that they feed ya
Let’s cast amnesia
Let’s cast amnesia, forget about all that evil
That evil, that they feed ya
We’re one tribe ya’ll
We people, we people
One tribe ya’ll
One people, one people [One People]
What will you do to help unite and strengthen the forces of Good in the world?
Join me on my quest to empower passionate change-makers to unleash your true potential online, and make a real difference in the world.
Share this message with your friends, and sign up for my enlightened marketing for Good free newsletter. And when you get the first message, feel free to write me back and share your thoughts — let me know if you agree or disagree with me. Let me know how I can be of service to you, in your quest to make the world, and your life, a better place to be.
- Peace out!
