in the beginning...

iPhone users are happier to pay for digital content than the wider online population; while Mac users are more creative and individualistic, a pair of surveys released this morning claim.
reported on the Huffington Post

After turkey and pumpkin pie, during a lull in the football and pinochle, I read this short piece on the Huffington Post on my iPhone.  Then, I got home to write this post on my iMac.  (I could have posted it from my iPhone – but I haven’t tackled that much complexity and effort yet.  So much for my own abilities, such as creatively learning what all I can do with what I have).  Back to the news item — it pleased me that surveys show that Mac users are more creative.  Here’s the summary:

Analysing aggregated data from 76,000 PC and Mac users asked about aesthetic preferences, media choices, and personality traits, the survey declares that Mac users want to be perceived as unique, prefer bold colors and retro designs, enjoy indie films, and consider themselves risktakers. Those PC users, on the other hand, are more likely to see the world as “different enough already” and appreciate “being in tune with those around them.”  This is reflected in their more subtle, “mainstream modern” (neither retro nor extremely contemporary) design choices and their practical choices in clothing, footwear, and cars that favor getting the job done rather than making an overt design statement.

From a personality perspective, Mac People are more likely to describe themselves as “verbal”, “conceptual”, and “risk takers”, with PC People countering that they are “numbers oriented”, “factual” and “steady, hard workers”.
 
Interestingly, PC users like John Travolta, while Mac users prefer The Wire.

I, of course, am having fun with all of my personal Mac references.  But – there is a really subtle message.  I think we all want to be seen as “like” the people we want to be like.  So if we want to be known as creative, even subconsciously, then we choose products that reinforce these desires.  And we all know, from our earliest days, that “peer pressure,” the simple desire to be “one of the group” will dictate our choices:  our purchasing choices, our vocabulary choices, our style choices – all of our choices.

In other words, we dress and talk and act like others in our tribe – in order to be seen as part of the tribe, because this is our tribe.

But back to Mac – is it any surprise that Mac users and creativity go together?  Just think about the simplest illustration of this:  Steve Jobs seems to be the living exemplar of creativity.  Can anyone even picture Steve jobs using a PC?  I rest my case.

1. And every new message will add value, somewhere
By creating a Mantra, you’ve discovered what makes you unique. Now use online or offline forums, meetings, blogs and start leveraging that uniqueness. Make greater contributions every time you participate by bringing new value to every discussion, where you work or on the Web. Whether you’re on the Web or working with people who use it, ideas with real merit will help you define a new culture and attract the followers you’ll need to make a difference.

2. And add new value to every contribution
You are already a leader or an acknowledged expert; by raising the “flag” of your Mantra you can begin to attract followers and supporters. As they follow and support you, the sum of their individual contributions will add even more value to the discussions or projects that matter the most. Al Gore got the Nobel Prize not as a former VP, but because all of his followers’ contributions added (real or perceived) value to their communal cause.

3. And watch your leadership gain impact and real relevance
Leadership is no longer bestowed by an institution, or artificially grown in the hothouse of a hierarchy. Whoever brings the most value to their “tribe,” community, group or team will naturally command the respect and attention it takes to attract more followers–because the evolving leader can help every other group member grow and prosper. A hierarchy will promote the myth that benefits “trickle down”; but in our new world, authority trickles up to the person who deserves it the most.

4. So your passion and humanity becomes an added benefit to every follower
A great butler shares many acquired skills and talents. He brings them to life by adding his passion for detail, and his (or her) humanity. A leader shares innate and acquired skills and talents  as extra value for every follower or team member.  Having a Mantra makes it unnecessary to try and command or control anyone. Now you attract them with  content that’s clear, concise and compelling. Every new message will be rich with relevance, proof and real value. Just become more useful and generous, and your followers will become more loyal to you and to each other.

5. And key tasks or decisions will always be on the front burner–where they belong
When you use the Mantra process to complete a project or reach a decision, as a by-product you will have more buy-in, credibility and long-term support. You also empower the group to prioritize what they’ve been working on together. Everyone else will perceive the project or decision’s extra value that your community members have helped make extra valuable. and everyone will see the value of making sure it receives the attention, and gets the credit, that it deserves.

6. And ensure your followers’ commitment to defining and organizing
Forget the silos. On the Web or during the Mantra process, your followers and supporters can come from any background to choose you, or the culture you’re creating around your new Mantra “flag.” Everyone will link up to or  ignore what you’ve done, depending on how much value they see in their interactions with you and each other. Working through the process together will give them get many chances to choose. They will do it constantly so what you’re doing will have an organic and healthy ebb and flow.

7. And make “pushing” (or “pulling”) a thing of the past
In brick-and-mortar organizations, resources were allocated up and down through silos, with little concern for their function, applicability or long-term relevance. More recently, “push and pull” advocates thought they could manipulate our behavior through negative or positive influence. Sharing time and attention is just one way people show who’s the rea boss in every transaction. Get them actively involved in defining and spreading value and build a real community to make a real difference.

8. And lose your fear of sharing your best ideas
The most effective way to copyright your good ideas? Turn that “your” into a plural pronoun. Develop all your ideas as a team. Then you’ll never worry about being beaten to the punch, or who gets the ecredit. No individual can make an idea as good as what a focused team will come up with. And by the time anyone learns of the idea, it will already be at least partially be documented and put into practice.

9. And take on the online (or offline) world with ideas born whole to a group
See number 8–then move into the future with it.

10. And you’ll watch your followers and supporters carry you forward
It’s not just online users who are loyal when they have a substantial say in key decisions, or how a project is being planned and implemented. You may think you’ve built the community you lead; but once the users get involved they are its creators. They truly own it, along with any culture that grows up around it.

11. And give everyone involved a very personal stake in your success
Is the web a testament to the power of intrinsic rewards and the commitment of all the people who grow online communities? Of course it is. And a nation is testament to the sacrifices and vision of all who’ve contributed to its growth. People have always given generously of themselves when they actively contributed to something; they will remain actively engaged with the leader and group that made it happen. Take this to heart and start leading.

12. And find a legitimate, meaningful way to acknowledge those who bring us the most value
Finding a group of millions of individuals with a dream, and giving them an eloquent voice and renewed sense of purpose, is what got Barack Obama elected president. They were ready to overturn the status quo; he gave them a way to do it–by electing him. His problems and loss of popular support started when he didn’t acknowledge their contributions. When he stopped valuing them, their sense of ownership over where the country is heading under his administration disappeared. Avoid making the same mistake, and you can achieve greater success.

By Tom Walker

THE FIRST ever replica of a 1000-year-old Pictish throne has been unveiled at the National Museum of Scotland after months of painstaking research and craftsmanship.

The original throne – thought to be the seat of a bloodthirsty warrior king – no longer exists, but the replica is intended to give visitors a glimpse of Scotland’s brutal tribal past.

Today (Thursday) the National Museum of Scotland unveiled the throne, which was commissioned in partnership with Glenmorangie Single Malt and is set to move around Scotland first going on display at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre from 1 December.

David Clark at National Museums of Scotland said: “Thrones were symbols of authority and power and as such would have been a very important part of Early Historic Scottish society that has hitherto been rather overlooked.

“There are no surviving examples of thrones from Early Historic Scotland and during the process of recreating this piece we’ve learnt so much about the design, manufacture and use of these thrones.

“It’s very exciting to see this type of throne brought to life for the first time in over a thousand years.”

The throne – into which clan symbols have been etched – will then move on to the Glenmorangie Distillery in Ross-shire in 2010, and from there will be on display at various locations around Scotland.

It was created by craftsman Adrian McCurdy in a bid to spark interest in Scotland’s past and show how sophisticated early Scottish society was.

Paul Neep, chief executive at Glenmorangie, said: “We are delighted to be able to work with National Museums Scotland to enable them to make exciting revelations about this period.

“At the Glenmorangie Company we are proud of our Scottish roots, particularly the ancient art and culture of the Picts which surrounds our Distillery in Ross-shire.”

See more of our pictures at our Flickr site and videos at our dedicated channel,  Deadline TV.

Magical

Bruce Parry documentary on the Anuta tribe: Going Tribal.
Play all <—-+

Playlist <–+

Well I have the answer to my own question about free lunches, having been to the Abacus 21st Birthday Party on Friday.

The event was fantastic – 125 friends and former colleagues, a great venue and excellent food. The night vanished far too quickly and the only real complaint was that we’d had to wait 21 years for this event.

In the words of Conrad Young, on why we were having a party
” Now felt like a good time to celebrate, and besides, we have a bit of spare cash lying around!”

No-one is publicly saying exactly how much the purchase of Abacus by Thomson Reuters cost, but a number of sources put it in the £20M to £30M bracket. For my money, that should easily pay for a party and change for a few more :- )

And so to my original question, is there such a thing as a free lunch? Well there was no obvious hard sell, no veiled recruiting and no washing of dishes afterwards. It really did feel like a pure celebration so I guess there is such a thing as a free lunch after all!

If you went and have an opinion, let me know if you agree.

News item: we now know that Al Franken used the wisdom gleaned from Chris Anderson’s idea about the Long Tail to win his election.

The Long Tail, the idea championed by Chris Anderson, and Microtrends, the book by Mark Penn, converge in this story. And you can throw a little Seth Godin and Tribes into the mix.

You probably know the concept of the Long Tail by now. A Border’s or Barnes and Noble store will stock books that have the best chance of selling. Amazon sells the same books, and some 80% of the books sold on Amazon are stocked in a typical physical retail bookstore. But 20% of sales for Amazon are from the “long tail.” (A quick read for this idea, and it is pretty good, is the wickipedia article on the Long Tail).

The traditional way to make money was to market to the masses. But increasingly, the way to reach people is with narrower niche marketing. This is really the end game of the long tail – it enables one to market, very successfully, to an increasingly narrow niche. Mark Penn describes it this way in Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes:

All these people out there living a more single, independent life are slivering America into hundreds of small niches. (The number of households in America has exploded, even though population growth has slowed dramatically).
This book is about the niching of America. How there is no One America anymore, or Two, or Three, or Eight. In fact, there are hundreds of Americas, hundreds of new niches made up of people drawn together by common interests.
You can’t understand the world anymore only in terms of “megatrends,” or universal experiences. In today’s splintered society, if you want to operate successfully, you have to understand the intense identity groups that are growing and moving, fast and furious in crisscrossing directions. That is microtrends.
A microtrend is an intense identity group, that is growing, which has needs and wants unmet by the current crop of companies, marketers, policymakers, and others who would influence society’s behavior.

The number crunchers keep examining the last election. Here is a revealing description about the Franken win (let me recommend, don’t let your politics, one way or the other, get in the way — – pay attention to the marketing implications). I first read this in a Daily Kos post, but the source is Long-Tail Nanotargeting from Politics Magazine.

Thanks to Democrat Al Franken’s Senate campaign, we now have a proven model to move beyond [the old campaign voter targeting] strategies. We do it by tapping into the concept of the “long tail,” an Internet marketing theory popular in the corporate world. It’s based on the idea that the Internet audience is extremely fractured. So, instead of identifying the most universally persuasive messages and broadcasting them to a wide audience, in the long-tail model you take the most persuasive messages and nanotarget each one to the right niche.
People don’t go to one place, looking for one thing. Their whims take them to a million places. The trick is to be everywhere, with tightly targeted messages. It’s about showing them highly relevant factoids/ads tailored to the whim they’re currently indulging, which if clicked, will redirect them to a relevant part of your website or related off-site content. In short, long-tail nanotargeting takes those little gems—be it an endorsement, video, news story, or ask—and shows it to the people who would care. To this end, we ran more than 30 million impressions for the Franken campaign across five horizontal ad networks, two vertical networks and dozens of local news outlets.
We nanotargeted more than 125 niche groups, with more than 1,000 pieces of creative, for less than $100,000. On Google alone, an acquisition budget of less than $20,000 got us more than 20,000 clicks, 5,500 active e-mail sign- ups, and more than 2,500 donors. We were able to reach persuasion niches (this is akin to someone opening up and reading a mail piece) for a fraction of a penny per impression, and less than 50 cents per interaction.
They targeted geographic and demographic niches online. They tested messages to see what worked best. Here’s an example:
In real terms, Minnesotans who were searching for cheap gas or researching fuel-efficient cars saw ads about Franken’s plan to lower gas prices.

The long tail has made Amazon successful, helped elect Al Franken, and, I suspect, will be the way to go for an ever growing number of businesses. It is the internet that makes this possible. But it is understanding the long tail, and implementing strategies that take advantage of the long tail, that will make people more successful.

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You can purchase my synopses of The Long Tail and Microtrends, and my colleague Karl Krayer’s synopsis of Tribes, with audio + handout, from our companion site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com.

sorry i have been absent. the last month has been crazy busy as we prepare to unleash four new productions this year – all of which i’m pretty proud of, some more so than others, but that’s to be expected.
so the craziness started when we decided to throw a black tie dinner to raise awareness of our Foundation and the fact that Travis McCoy had recorded a track called One At a Time, exclusively for the Foundation. the track is released on 1st December World AIDS Day. We had less than 3 weeks to pull it off and thanks to the Westbury hotel in London, and some great people, we did it. and it was hosted by the gorgeous Idris Elba

Cathy and Tasha with Idris Elba and Myron Rolle

Three hours sleep and then i was off to Nairobi, Kenya to launch Shuga. The premiere there went down a treat. Everyone loved Shuga! so the question is – where’s the funding coming from to do Shuga 2?

On the red carpet for the premiere of Shuga

Two of the male actors on the red carpet of the launch of Shuga

While I was enjoying the fanfare in Nairobi, Georgia, the SVP of Social Responsibility for MTVNI, jetted into Zambia to preside over the launch of Shuga there.

Ms G hanging with the Cast

If you’ve ever been to the Lusaka Playhouse, you’d be amazed as to how Media 365, who organised the whole launch in Zambia, transformed it. Even the VIP attendees couldn’t believe it! In short Shuga went down a treat.

Back in the office to oversee the distribution of programming – Travis McCoy’s Unbeaten Track, Shuga, Tribes and Embrace me – all for WAD – which at this point was in less than 2 weeks away!

But our premieres are not done yet. Ukraine will be unveiling Embrace Me this week – i just saw the offline and despite the fact that i couldn’t understand it, it looks good – hmmm some competition for Shuga?

And Ben, my trusty coordinator is off to Trinidad tomorrow to see the launch of Tribes. hmmm lucky him, i’m missing the sun already!.

I’ll have pictures from those events next week. But make sure you keep up to date with all things related to MTV Staying Alive Ignite here: www.staying-alive.org/ignite

Or check us out on facebook!

It’s fascinating to watch how different companies attempt to harness social media to create what Seth Godin describes as tribes.

Clearly there are many benefits to organisations creating online communities and engaging with their customers and potential customers via social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter – the most obvious being that communication is interactive, direct and instant.

One school of thought says its best to amass huge tribes (some companies by virtue of their brand power are able to do this anyway). Coca Cola’s Facebook Page for example, has some 3,773, 653 fans. But does size really matter, or is it more important to have a small, but highly interactive tribe?

Blue Dog Photography is one example of a small company who has created an engaged tribe. This photography training company is run by commercial photographers Danielle and Nick Lancaster out of Tamborine Mountain, in Australia’s Gold Coast Hinterland. Their Facebook Group page is relatively new and small – about 250 members. I joined the group after attending some Blue Dog workshops this year.

Blue Dog Photography - tribe-building via Facebook

Blue Dog engages with its workshop participants by offering a weekly photo competition. Open only to people who have attended a workshop, this competition instantly creates a feeling of exclusivity. Participants are asked to list the camera settings of the shots they submit, which promotes ongoing learning and information sharing. Members are invited to comment on each other’s photos, which promotes much discussion amongst the group, and is leading to the formation of many new Facebook friendships.

 Blue Dog lists details of upcoming workshops and retreats so that group members are always aware of when the next event is on – but it never feels like a sales pitch. You can practically hear the cheers from the community each time new workshops dates are announced. More recently, Blue Dog started posting daily updates from its photography tours on Fraser Island and Vanuatu. What better PR than to have happy customers posting amazing pictures to their Facebook and Flikr profiles, and the photo album on the Blue Dog page.

From a customer perspective, the regular interaction between the Lancaster’s and their “customers” (who they more frequently refer to as friends), is really valued. They converse online with the same friendly, professional approach they adopt in their workshops, so the “Blue Dog experience” is consistent wherever the interaction takes place. Blue Dog uses Facebook to provide advice and commentary on people’s images, regular tips about photography via the Blue Dog blog, links to photographic exhibitions, and information that is generally useful to their growing base of fans.

From a marketing perspective, it’s a positive example of how a relatively small business can engage instantly, regularly and cost effectively, with its clients and prospective clients. Importantly, it demonstrates that tribes don’t have to be huge to be effective. In the case of Blue Dog Photography’s tribe, intensity is definitely winning out over quantity.

Melanie Surplice has more than 12 years of experience in international BtoB marketing communications and is a former public relations professional. She is a part time Report Writer in the Dow Jones Media Lab based in Australia.

If you do anything in this world, you do it while observing rules. While most of us would like to live without rules, they must be there. Whether they are rules made by other people or rules that are inherit in all men and women. Without rules things would be so disorderly that trying to actually function in society would be nearly impossible.

There is one set of rules that for many people come from their consciences. Some people may refer to this as rules from God, or some other source larger than themselves. These rules have no need to be written down. We just know them. Like lying, stealing, or murdering are wrong and we really don’t need anyone to tell us these things, even though there are written laws that do. These rules can and often are broken by every single person on the planet.

However when it comes to tribes, not only do these instinctive rules apply to what we do, but so do the rules of our particular company, church, or organization. But who makes the rules for these tribes is what is important. Making rules is more fun than following them. As the leader of your tribe you are establishing rules, whether you know it or like it. A tribe I belong to doesn’t like organized religion, however, we have rules just as that tribe does. One of those rules is, we try to avoid talking about the people who attend to traditional religious practices. That is a rule, and when one of us steps over the line leaders are often around to help correct the course of our thoughts and conversation. There may not be anything written down, and it may not be a verbal correction, but simple body language and tone of voice may be enough for correction if the leader is well respected.

When you make rules for your tribe, written or otherwise, make sure there is some flexibility in how those rules are established. Sometimes rules make sense for a certain period of time, but then other times they are no longer valid. We must remember we need the trust and respect of our fellow tribe members to function properly, when we put constraints on how they behave or function we are asking them to trust us. As a result we need to be very careful and considerate when establishing rules for our tribes. Without trust and respect we have nothing, and our tribes will not last very long.

The more I study the phenomenon of tribes, the more I see it is not only shaping our future but it has shaped our past. A tribe is simply a group of people, large or small, that recognize the needs of the many outweight the needs of the few. A tribe gathers for a common goal and uses the collective wisdom/power/influence of the group to accomplish that goal. It’s less about the leader and more about the leadership of the tribe members. This is why I am excited about Invictus. It follows the story of Nelson Mandela’s Presidency as he fights to bring his country together through the World Cup. My hope is that Mandela’s story in Invicus will continue to inspire us in leading our own tribes.

Invictus comes out in December 11th

Who else can we thank?

Another way of saying it:

God is not on the Left, Right, or Center.

I know that is blasphemy to millions. But they seem to be worshiping tribal gods. Tribal gods are OK, but brittle.

Thank God, or the creative nature of the universe, that we are not all on the right, or all on the left, or all in the center. We are only all human, and only all earthlings.

If we were all on the right, or left, we would certainly hurtle over the cliff of our choosing, even faster than we’re now approaching the cliff that no one is choosing.

If we were all in the center, we would still be getting closer and closer to the non-chosen cliff, because there is too much investment in the status quo, and too little appetite for change.

But we’re not all in one place, one ideology, one proclivity, one style, one perspective.

That’s not a design flaw; that IS the design.

Even though that’s the design, we rail against it.

Even though, by our nature, we’re not all of one perspective, we’re in huge trouble now because enough of us haven’t waked up to realize that all our perspectives and peculiarities are needed to survive and thrive.  Or, that is, all are needed to be part of our on-going conversations, deliberations, adaptations, and innovations.

My heroes (dual gender) are those who have waked up to that, and who are able to speak well, and model well, in ways that are convincing to large segments of center, right, and left. Not just talking and inspiring (though those are important) but demonstrating – not as in protesting, but as in showing how.

This is a short video highlighting the book “Tribes,” and its value especially to businesses that want to harness the web’s tools for building an online audience.

Do you lead one?  Do you have one?  It’s a pretty good question these days since there’s a lot of talk about Tribes going around.  And it seems to be an evolving situation but an interesting one since it’s apparent that it’s becoming a very powerful cultural phenomenon.  I would say that it’s probably because of the increased connectivity we all have allows us access to people who have the same views and values.  For more on Tribes, I would recommend Seth Godin’s book, oddly enough titled: Tribes.

I had the priviledge of attending the recent PGC200 (www.pgc200.org) launch event in San Diego CA.  It’s a group that I’m advising that is creating a tribe.  It’s primarily made up of technical professionals (scientists and engineers) who are banding together to support one another professionally during trying economic times.  The featured speaker at this event was Gary Ridge, President and CEO of WD40 who has recently published a book with Ken Blanchard called Helping People Win at Work.

What’s exciting to watch about the development of PGC200 is that it’s a welcoming place for people who are not usually used to doing things like marketing themselves to interact with others who are good at that type of thing.  And it was only fitting that Gary Ridge was the featured speaker because he has actively worked to develop the Tribe culture at WD40.

In the book, Gary and Ken Blanchard describe a tribe as being a place where someone belongs as opposed to a team which is something someone plays on sometimes.

That’s an interesting definition and I think it’s highly effective when looking at a company’s culture during your job search.  Is it a place where you “belong” or someplace you go to play eight hours a day?

Gary and Ken also define leadership as a partnership which I think is a great definition.  In this partnership, are you helping someone to be successful and is someone helping you?  In this way, you can be a leader without a title and those you help become members of your tribe just as you become members of the tribe of those who help you.

LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are good places to find examples of Tribes.  People become followers and friends on these sites based on common interests which can be as simple as a joke of the day.

Like her or not, I think one of the most interesting examples of the Tribe phenomenon is Sarah Palin.  My take on her resigning the governorship of Alaska is that she is leading a tribe of followers, drawing people who are disaffected with their political parties and are looking for a place to belong.  We’ll see if that translates into political office but it’s certainly translated into book sales.

Tribes seem to be popping up all over the place, so maybe it’s time to start yours.  If you’re in a company, help others to be successful and they will become part of your tribe.  If your looking for a job, let your tribe help you. If you don’t have a tribe, start one by going beyond networking to really create a place where people feel they belong in your circle.  As Jay Abraham defines it, it’s the difference between a client and a customer.  A client is someone whose interests you watch out for rather than being in a transactional relationship.

So let me know what you think of this Tribes phenomenon.  I’m interested and hopefully you’re following this blog regularly.  It’s kind of like having a Tribe of my own.

P.S. – PGC200 will be having another event in San Diego in December featuring Ken Blanchard, stay tuned for more information or go to the www.PGC200.org.

Remember, your skills are your job security.

Best,

James Seetoo

On thing that tribes have to be conscious of are “off the shelf” beliefs.  These are the ideas that other people have developed. Those ideas are not always bad.  Many of the ideas that I am sharing here in this blog are inspired by others.  The thing that we must be careful of is not allowing the tribe to shape those ideas.  Sometimes certain tribes take a belief to an extreme and in turn it becomes for lack of a better word, a cult.

Anytime that we choose to follow a belief blindly, we are in danger of becoming a tribe that is dangerous.  Hitler was a charismatic leader who had a great vision for his country.  The only problem was his belief structure about how to achieve that greatness was filled with murderous intent.  Many of his fellow countrymen grabbed ahold of his beliefs and followed blindly.  As a result he lead his country on path of destruction that ultimately devoured him, his country, and ripped a hole in all the nations on earth.  Unfortunately the legacy of his beliefs are still felt by many people on earth today.

While most tribes are not as destructive as the one that Hitler assembled, they can have a localized legacy of pain and emotional breakdown.  I have seen many people who have been a part of churches, companies, and even families who have been left in the wake of a belief system that required its members to follow along blindly never questioning the belief structure.

A tribe that does not allow input from its members is always in danger of falling into this trap.  When beliefs are too limiting or extremely exclusive they can be dangerous.  This is not to say that beliefs aren’t limiting or exclusive, but tribes need to be aware of who they are excluding.  If you have a tribe that says Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream is the best, that is their belief.  That could exclude certain people who prefer Hagen-Daaz or Blue Bell, but it doesn’t exclude members based on what type of Ben and Jerry’s someone might like.

Be aware that just because you belong to tribe, doesn’t mean that you have to follow or lead blindly.  You do have a mind and your opinions do matter. If they don’t, consider finding a new tribe or starting your own.

Major religions of the world concur that the human beings started from God-created Adam and Hawa(Eve). According to Islamic traditions, every time Hawa gave birth, it would be a pair of male and female ‘twins’. The rule then was, the pair born as twins were not allowed to marry each other. Meaning a male from one pair can only marry a female born from other pairs. That was how HUMAN RACE started and proliferated.

Over unknown periods of time and multiplicity of circumstances, the descendents of Adam and Hawa dispersed wider and wider accross the length and breath of this PLANET Earth, and over longer periods of time, developed into  into distinctive tribes and races.

Regions of the world opened up, settled and ruled by the distinctive tribes, and their territorial identification recognised by others, soon began to be  identified with the dominant respective tribes and races. The lands of the English were named England, the land of the French were called France and the lands of the Spanish were known as Spain.

In what we presently call Asia, great civilisations were developed by different tribes and races. The lands of the Indian civilisation were known as India, the lands of Chinese civilisation were named China, the lands of Japanese were called Japan.

Our corner of the world we presently call Southeast Asia were opened up, settled down and administered by several tribal and racial entities. The Thais were rulers over the mainland kingdom of Thailand, the Lands of the Thais. Thailand seperates the mainland of Southeast-Asia from a peninsular to the south of it. The Peninsular was opened up, ruled and developed by the Malays, well before any history book was written, and ages before Arab and Chinese explorers sailed through the Straits of Malacca.  The peninsular was known as the Malay Peninsular(Semenanjung Tanah Melayu), before the name was changed to Federation of Malay States(Persekutuan Tanah Melayu), and later Malaysia. 

The Malay Peninsular is  part of the larger mass of lands and islands  comprising Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, southern Thailand and southern Philipines, collectively known as the MALAY ARCHIPELAGO.

VERSI BAHASA MELAYU

Tajuk: Bangsa-Bangsa dan Wilayah

Semua agama-agama utama dunia bersetuju bahawa keturunan manusia bermula dari Adam dan Hawa yang telah dijadikan oleh Allah swt, Tuhan Pencipta Alam. Mengikut ajaran Islam, pada awalnya, setiap kali Hawa melahirkan anak, ianya ialah secara berkembar, seorang lelaki dan seorang perempuan. Mengikut peraturan semasa itu, seorang anak lelaki tidak boleh berkahwin dengan perempuan kembarnya, tetapi hanya boleh berkahwin dengan anak perempuan dari kembar yang lain. Demikianlah bagaimana keturunan manusia mula berkembang dan membiak.

Setelah melalui tempoh yang tidak diketahui sesiapa lamanya, dan berbagai kejadian alam yang berlaku, keturunan manusia telah bertebaran ke seluruh pelusuk alam. Kesukaran perhubungan, perbezaan iklim dan persekitaran, serta faktor-faktor biology akhirnya membawa kepada pembentukan kelompok-kelompok manusia yang mempunyai budaya, bahasa dan adat resam berbeza.

Kelompok-kelompok manusia yang bertebaran ke serata dunia, dan mula membentuk identiti bangsa dan budaya tertentu mula menguasai wilayah-wilayah tertentu, yang kemudiannya diberikan nama tertentu, biasanya berkait-rapat dengan bangsa-bangsa yang mendominasi dan ‘memerintah’ wilayah-wilayah berkenaan. Wilayah yang didominasi bangsa English(Inggeris) diberi nama England, yang dikuasai bangsa French(Perancis) dinamakan French(Perancis) dan yang diperintah oleh bangsa Spanish(Sepanyol) diberi nama Spain(Sepanyol).

Di ceruk dunia yang sekarang ini kita panggil Asia, telah terdapat tamaddun-tamaddun besar. Tamaddun bangsa India bertapak di benua kecil yang dinamakan India. Tamadun bangsa Cina subur di tanah besar Cina. Tamaddun bangsa Jepun berkembang di tanah matahari terbit Jepun.

Terdapat juga tamaddun-tamaddun besar di wilayah yang sekarang kita panggil Asia Tenggara. Bangsa Siam atau Thai telah wilayah yang  dipanggil Thailand, atau tanah bangsa Thai. Thailand menghubungkan tanah besar Asia Tenggara dengan suatu semenanjung di selatannya. Semenanjung ini telah diterokai, diperintah dan dimajukan oleh bangsa Melayu, sejak sebelum buku-buku sejarah ditulis dan sebelum pelayar-pelayar Arab dan Cina mula melayari Selat Melaka. Semenanjung ini telah dikenali dengan nama Semenanjung Tanah Melayu, sebelum bertukar kepada nama-nama lain seperti Persekutuan Tanah Melayu dan Malaysia.

Semenanjung Tanah Melayu pula adalah sebahagian dari tanah-tanah dan kepulauan yang membentuk wilayah lebih besar mencakupi Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapura, Brunei, selatan Thailand dan selatan Filipina yang terkenal dengan panggilan KEPULAUAN MELAYU.

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‘She wants to know if you are from ‘different tribe’. Our assistant Huong was translating for a tribal girl. She was in her early twenties dressed in a black trouser suit with red and yellow trimmings. Her baby balanced on her hip she was as interested in the group of cyclists gather around her as they were in her. Although to our ears her question initially seemed odd it was for a peasant girl who had never left her village quite reasonable. After all, look at us, long noses and funny coloured eyes, tight cycling shirts, Lycra shorts, strange sunglasses and the tribal plastic hat of the cyclist. Yes, she was right, we were from the tribe of the white cyclist.

We were standing in the playground of a small village school in the hills of a remote part of Vietnam’s mountainous north eastern region. We had not dropped by and disturbed their mornings schooling unannounced and out of idle curiosity, we were here for a reason, to try to help a little. I am leading this group of British cyclists on a tour of the hill country of North West Vietnam. In many of the countries that Red Spokes run tours we have a project such as this school where we try to put a little back into the country we visit. Indeed Red Spokes CEO Dermot MacWard often talks with such passion and enthusiasm for the charities he supports that it is easy to forget that he is first and foremost running a business.

Part of the visit includes the giving of a prize for the best performing boy and girl, for the boy we took a football and, once the formalities of the visit were complete, any air of shyness that existed soon broke down as the Red Spokes team took on the local kids in an impromptu game of soccer. What the Vietnamese lacked in technical knowledge of the game they made up for in enthusiasm, energy and numbers as without fear of there bare feet being crushed beneath the mighty cycling shoes of their opponents they set about the huge Europeans with the same vigour as Korea showed against Germany in the 2002 World Cup.

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Meanwhile the tribal girl was explaining how, aged 18 she had met her husband at the “love market” and now, four years down the line he has left her literally holding the baby. Life for theses people is not the bed of roses that it is for we in the West. Here poverty does not mean just one plasma screen TV and a smaller car, it means having nothing other that hopefully some food and shelter provided by the caring people of your village.

Due to limited classroom space the school runs its lessons in three shifts. Unfortunately due to the six o’clock sunset it is often a little troublesome for the last sitting to see their text books, chalk board and teacher. To help with this, this group has agreed to fund the necessary cable, switches fixture and fittings needed to light the classrooms.

Visiting the school was a great experience for the group the teachers and the pupils. Hopefully it has helped to forge an understanding of the lives of peoples of very different cultures.

I will be back here just after Christmas leading another group. We will take with us from Hanoi all they need for the electrification project and hopefully raise a little more money towards improving the quality of the education of these great kids.

Tribes are built on a foundation of three things. Belief is what the members of the tribe have in common. Whether they share a belief about religion, social issues, or what kind of ice cream they like. Belief is something that tribe members are passionate about. But belief alone will not hold up a tribe, it also requires faith.

By faith I mean that next step that belief takes that moves into action. Faith is all about action. Not just doing something to do something, but doing something that has purpose. In the case of the tribe that I am a member of, my belief in Jesus causes me to pursue a relationship with Him. I don’t just believe that I should have a relationship with Him, I am purposed to be intentional in that relationship. My faith in that relationship is not based on situations, but on the fact that I know He is ever present and ever pursuing relationship with me. But passion and purpose are not enough to hold up a tribe, it also requires respect.

Respect is that deepening part of a relationship that can only come through contact with other tribe members. True respect results from being willing to prefer other tribe members over self. Respect is not about selfishness, but instead about giving. If tribe members begin to function with respect for one another, you will see a tribe that is passionate, purposeful, and unstoppable. They can affect change by just being in existence. They will be a light shining in the darkness, and others who are on the fringes of society will be drawn in to find out how to be a part of that group.

That doesn’t mean that just because a tribe has belief, faith, and respect it will be something positive. Gangs are tribes that have all of those things among its members, even if they are a bit more volatile than most. Don’t assume that because you get together to share a common passion that you are making a positive impact. I have seen many a tribe do nothing more than be passionate about ripping others. I have even lead some of those tribes. When we do these things with others remember that we should guard our hearts, and keep our minds toward Christ in all things.

By Chris Sullins (November 16, 2009)

“This is going to sound kind of funny,” began my wife as she massaged my bare feet as I lay stretched out on the couch, “but your feet smell kind of sweet.  Did you put some lotion on them today?”

“No,” I replied as I reflected first on a rather long day before thinking back over our nearly too decades together and the fact I’d never heard her make a comment like that.  Truth be told she had sometimes stated the aromatic qualities of my feet were quite the opposite.  However, much had been on my mind over the last few days and I added out loud “Maybe they’re sweet for a reason.  I’ve been walking through this life with one foot in the spirit world.  Maybe more so than usual recently.”

“Why?” she asked as my feet rested on her lap.  “Is something the matter?”

“No, it’s nothing new,” I said.  “Not something that’s bothering me or burdening me.  It’s just this time of year.  It’s when I remember the medic I worked with who was killed in Iraq, then coming home only a couple weeks later and demobilizing over Veterans Day weekend.  Just a lot of things I remember and how I see things differently now.  How I know our world could be different for people if they saw things –if they really saw things — and simply chose to act differently from that next moment on.  But then I realize that few things have really changed, that the majority of people haven’t had life changing moments of true insight, and the changes that I wish for will probably not happen in my lifetime.”

My wife was silent.  It occurred to me a few seconds later that I had probably missed her intent for a conversation that was standing more stationary in the present.  But, I had noisily wandered off on one of my introspective and well-traveled footpaths in the fallen leaves of the past while searching for the distant mountains of the fabled future.

She had sat through many of my longer rambling monologues, especially with my far less than sweet feet on other occasions.  My wife’s patience has been both a true testament of tolerance and a direct benefit to the longevity of our marriage.  If we could somehow bottle how this marital chemistry has successfully worked and give it to other couples, it might lessen the divorce rate of 85% for military officers and recent veterans currently being suffered nationwide.

Many soldiers continue to wear their combat boots for weeks or months after returning home.  I did so as well until the following summer when the boots looked too out of place at the civilian office.  I still wear them when I hunt, target shoot, do outdoor work, or just to go around town.  Some recent veterans also wear a military belt with their civilian clothes, but you don’t see the military outdoor jackets worn by this latest generation of demobilized soldiers like the Vietnam generation did.  But, it’s quite possible over the next few years that economic conditions may force this nation’s former service members, and who find themselves increasingly homeless, to make expedient use of their issued clothing rather than worry about a possible fashion faux pas.

Veterans Day and Memorial Day were set aside for public remembrance for this nation’s military service members.  One day dedicated to the living still among us, the other day reserved for our honored dead.  However, for veterans and surviving family members, both days trigger recall of those who have fallen beneath the thin black line into the shaded place of memory.

Stored feelings are often shaken back into daylight and stirred with pain on those days.  But another long drag across the slow passage of time and the sharpest points on the serrated edges can be dulled again.  The veteran who has learned to adjust grit and spit on the whetstone can fall back on the familiar sense of stony fatalism; but we too still wonder how family members who suffered losses cope in the dark valleys between the sunny peaks on their personal roller coaster ride.

On those days, we speak or write our words, march together, and light our candles often alone in the silent evenings.  Whatever symbols or rituals we used were all important, but may change over time as well.  I remember the wreath I made from evergreen boughs tied with rawhide strips which I gave to a tribal elder to lay in the waters of the river.  It was helpful for me both to make and to give away, but just as helpful for the elder to place it in the water.  Everything had its place and everyone their role.  All of this was connected.

The veteran more than many others understands the connection between cause and effect when it comes to human life –that decisions can have fatally permanent consequences.  The separations and losses, both downrange and at home, while on a long deployment cause irrevocable changes physically, mentally, and emotionally.  People who have recently returned from a deployment often have yet to realize their idealized home of the not too distant past has vanished like smoke from yesterday’s campfire.

Today’s veterans and family members are actively encouraged to step into what is called the “new normal”.  If they try to crawl back for a lost past, they may soon find themselves shackled by an ankle on an increasingly shortened chain.  They have yet to learn there is no way to go back and recycle the old normal.  More pain will be in store if they can’t move forward.

The Native Americans and other tribal societies from around the world once had purification ceremonies for their veterans upon return home from war.  It was understood and acknowledged that a change had taken place.  Modern psychologists research this and try their own version of collective reprogramming and community reintegration, but they will miss many of the necessary symbolic elements.  It’s not that they fail to listen to the modern warrior, but that the modern warrior like those from the past may have little to say at first.

But what can a veteran say when wars have yet to end and evil continues to evade justice.  The youthful veteran who asks what more can be done may continue to serve in uniform, put an individual life on pause, and if necessary sacrifice that life.  The aged or weary veteran who has meditated upon personal revelations and seen historical cycles repeat may do little more than wonder what his society as a whole has learned and fear for its future.

Many veterans have been far too humble to ask tough questions in public.  Likewise, many civilian leaders don’t ask them either as they hit one easy softball after another in the mainstream media.  Unfortunately, there are times in history when asking hard questions, seeking real answers and making the cold-blooded decisions necessary to unconditionally vanquish an enemy can be misinterpreted by a pampered public or purposely maligned by internally corrosive political factions.

War was not, is not, and will never be glorious in any storybook sense.  Its description can never be entirely caught between the writers’ worn pendulum of boredom and terror.  The use of mass physical force, though applied in varying combinations of science and art, always approaches the vulgar rather than the eloquent in its display.  One who has seen both slaughterhouse and surgery in action understands the difference between monstrous tools, monsters, and the necessary actions of good people.

At some point in our journey though we ask what was this all for?  This was not asked in the sense of the expenditures of “blood and treasure” on the kingdom’s balance sheet.  That was never the sort of knowledge we as veterans and our associated family members sought.  At the end of it all when some sage puts pen to scroll or keystroke to screen, we just wanted to know if we made a difference and someone gave a damn about it after the last of us are gone.

What frustrates the hell out of us, though, is seeing the same tired patterns repeated of political games and infighting in the present tense.  Observers then act surprised when the rug is pulled out from under soldiers during the war and again later for veterans.  And sometimes living veterans and their recent wars can fade from public memory faster than the flags do at the military cemeteries.  More times than not someone who had no “skin in the game” (their words not ours) decided that the conditions needing security had changed and it was simply time for a cessation of active force.  There will be some inside talk of how the tools had served their usefulness when it comes to the soldiers and later this will turn to those same tools exceeding their productive service life when it comes to veterans.

Note that I did not use a phrase to imply an end of war or a beginning of peace.  Anyone around long enough knows there is no such thing as lasting peace when it comes to our worldly governments built upon the current human minds which want to play king of the hill.  Periods in human history known as peace have simply been lulls in hostilities as one or more sides re-equip their people with better arms.  The sides then re-engage from perceived positions of superior strength and try again to win more battles.  The best that might be achieved is a temporary sense of victory during that generation’s time of war.

Given what sounded like my earlier ethereal call for peace and understanding, it may now seem that I took you the reader in a circle of roulette with a bouncing ball of personal paradox.  The main reason for this is that I have yet to see anything which indicates a real lasting change in collective human attitude; although I honestly long for it as indicated at the very beginning of this essay.  But, if you were looking for that warm fuzzy feeling seed planted by today’s green crop of sound bite motivational speakers, be advised you already slipped off the gore-spackled edge and planted yourself into what you might consider my mentally contradictory mix of crunchy charred bones and sticky squishy flesh.  Please wade with me a bit further.

I will try to illustrate this deep dimly lit place using an actual dream that I had a few nights ago right after Veterans Day.  Telling you the dream will be more important than me having the dream.  The dream doesn’t hold any mysteries for me.  I painted it.  However, it will explain the perspectives of a veteran, the struggle between generations over understanding the cycles of time which includes war and peace, and why in many ways the passage of time and the death of memory itself has been humanity’s main problem.

The dream goes like this:  You are sitting in a very dark room, but you can still see the floor around you and the chair you’re sitting in.  Your frail elderly father is resting on a couch not far away.  In the hazy light you see a scorpion slowly crawling on the floor toward you from the side.  Your first thought is to stand up and step on it with your boots, but you immediately find your wrists are securely tied to the chair.  The chair itself is also firmly bolted to the floor.

The scorpion continues to slowly move toward you.  You yell to your father warning him there’s a scorpion in the room.  You advise him to immediately come over and untie your hands before it gets any closer.  There’s still time for you to safely stomp on the scorpion if he does this right now.  However, your father replies that he can’t even see you in the room let alone the scorpion crawling around somewhere on the floor.  Your father has sat up, but really can’t see his way and won’t leave his couch.

Just before the scorpion disappears from your view on the floor to your left, you try to reach over with your foot.  The scorpion is too far away and leaves the edge of your view somewhere beneath the chair.  You and your father sit silently in your respective places for another minute.  You then see the scorpion crawling up your left bicep.  At that point you wake from the dream.

The understanding of that dream comes from walking with one foot in the spirit world.  If it’s possible for both of us to take the journey together without pain, then I would like to do that.  However, I suspect one of us may have to suffer the sting of the scorpion as long as one or both are unable or unwilling to take action at the right moment.

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Author: Scott O’Dell

Page Length: 184

Reading Level: 5.5

Genre: Fiction

PLOT SUMMARY: The only life Karana has ever known is as a young Indian woman on her tribe’s island. Their peaceful world is disturbed when hunters arrive one day to rob the land of its treasures and start a great battle. Out of sadness and despair, Karana’s people decide to leave their village life behind. But as the boat sets sail, Karana realizes that her little brother has been left behind. Will she save him? If she gives up her chance for rescue, will there be another or is Karana prepared to survive on the island alone?

REVIEW: Karana’s story is heart wrenching and interesting; however, I think that struggling readers will become lost in many of the details and descriptions of the hunt and island life. Yet, O’Dell uses vivid imagery; students could respond by recreating scenes from the story. Helping students to visualize the island and the conditions (possibly through pictures and drawings) would help improve comprehension and engagement in the last half of the story. I’ve seen this book used as a sixth grade classroom read and most of the students were not engaged in the story. However, the novel brings to light some interesting discussion points about sacrifice and survival. It definitely provides a springboard for discussing bravery and courage. As a book, with a character who endures many hardships and prevails, it is a worthwhile read. It was a winner of the Newberry Medal.

The story is based on the true accounts of the Lost Woman of San Nicolas.

AREAS FOR TEACHING:  character traits, cause and effect, author’s purpose, sequence of events

TOUCHY AREAS-PAGES: fighting among the natives and the Aleuts (p. 22-24)

RELATED BOOKS: Gary Paulsen’s Dogsong, Hatchet, S. M. Sterling’s Dies the Fire, Lord of the Flies, Robinson Crusoe, Meg Rosoff’s How I Live Now

MOVIE CONNECTIONS: Island of the Blue Dolphins (1964)

RELATED WEBSITES:

http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=1068

http://www.webenglishteacher.com/odell.html

http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001393.shtml

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/fiction/activity/5242.html

http://www.scottodell.com/

REVIEWED BY: Dayna Taylor

It is hard pressing these days to find an American that epitomizes the image of the now mythical rugged individual. You know the tale: a man enters onto this land with absolutely nothing but the shirt on his back, but with a lot of hard work and determination he earns his fortune and happiness.  Do we even hear stories like this anymore?   Does such a person exist?

He does.  It’s this man right here.  His name is Russell Hantz.

How appropriate that we find him playing in the 18^th season of CBS’s reality television show Survivor.  Hantz is the best thing that has ever happened to the show – the executives at CBS must be giving high-fives constantly to each other in the boardroom.  And, he proved right from the first episode that he deserves to win it.

For those of you who never been drawn into mania that was roused in Survivor’ s early days, here’s a synopsis of how this goes down. In terms of the show, a Survivor is one who can Outwit, Outlast, and Outplay everybody else.  Every season, producers choose some tropical or desert scene to film the competition (this season it is one of the Samoan islands).  They plunk twenty contestants of different ages, backgrounds and boob sizes in the middle of nowhere and split them into two ‘tribes’.  Every episode shows each of the tribes coping in the wild without supplies or shelter and then has them competing against their opposing tribe in some sort of challenge created for the show.  The tribe that loses the challenge is then sent to ‘tribal council’, where each of the members votes for one person to be ousted from the tribe. Eventually, as the number of contestants dwindles both tribes merge and for the rest show they just peck each other off.  Finally, a jury of cast-off contestants votes for the winner. The prize:  $1,000,000.  Get that?

Naturally, many vie to participate in the game mostly to win the money.  Then comes our hero Hantz.  Russell’s not in this for the money.  Here is our quintessential ‘rugged individual.’  Russell, a thirty-six year old man from Texas, is actually a multi-millionaire oil-company owner; unbeknownst to his fellow players.  Many of times in the show, Hantz, with his southern drawl, confides to the camera, “I’m not doing this for the million dollars.”  Instead, he’s teaching everyone how Survivor is really played.

You can call his methods dirty, and CBS promos call him “Survivor’s Villain,” but one can argue that his ruthless tactics are in fact what a person needs to effectively become a Survivor: one that OUTWITS, OUTLASTS and OUTPLAYS.  For example, just in the first episode, Russell creates his ‘dumb ass girl alliances’ by successfully gaining the trust of each of the three females in his tribe (all of them not knowing that he has made the same promises to each of them).  He then went on to burn one guy’s socks, and dump all of the fresh water out of the canteens.  So while everyone is frantically running around trying to figure out what to do, in comes Russell with a calm misdemeanor and saves the day.  The best tactic he’s pulled?  To win one of the girl’s trust he told her that he lost his dog in hurricane Katrina.  Sympathy is a wonderful card to play.  Despite the fact that Russell’s tribe has lost every single challenge, and their group is now down to four, his tribe trusts him implicitly.  This has only been achieved through Russell’s scheming.  Oh, don’t misunderstand; there have been those that were leery of the man.  But, don’t worry, Russell made sure that they were gone by the end of the show.

Russell brings reality to the character that Americans were taught to aspire to.  Sure we can work hard to get what we want in life, but there is a certain level of cunning that is needed to succeed as well.  Just like in Survivor, there are too many people striving for the same thing, and therefore the real challenge is getting the upper hand.  Russell is sure to have learned all of his strategies while earning success in his oil company, and the actions he has committed on the show no doubt equal the tactics he’s pulled in real life.  And, this by no means asserts that Russell is a bad person.  Perhaps he is in fact shedding light on each person’s innate ability to screw over everyone else.  Flaunt what you got, I always say.

Since the tribes have emerged, Russell now struggles to stay in the game, as the other tribe wants to systematically eliminate everyone on his tribe.  He’s finding it hard to create alliances with the opposing tribe, but he’s learning how to sneak around them to earn immunity during tribal council.  His biggest enemy is a lawyer named Laura who has her own tribe wrapped around her little finger as she tries to oust the man that would mean her downfall.  Though Russell is showing more anxiety these days, he never fails to have a game plan full of lies, deceit, and malice.  The best of luck.

Author Seth Godin has brought us books like Purple Cow, Free Prize Inside, All Marketers are Liars, The Dip and most recently Tribes to name a few.

Tribes is not only about change – its about leadership. Seth Godin, whether consciously or not – is leading his growing tribe of followers- book by book, lecture by lecture. Why? Because he is never afraid to challenge the status quo (and you can too).

Godin defines a tribe as a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea that inspires their passion. He argues that human beings have a need to belong, “to be part of a tribe, to contribute to (and take from) a group of like-minded people. We are drawn to leaders and to their ideas, and we can’t resist the rush of belonging and the thrill of the new,” he writes. Source: USA Today

Tribes is about a new kind of leadership – the kind of leadership that has emerged through the Internet, in chat rooms, in social media and in communities. If you’re ready to be remarkable – to lead a tribe – put on a pair of army pants, buy Seth’s book and get ready to pursue something that matters (to you).

Leaders are unique people. Most people aren’t leaders. The general concept of a leader for most people probably centers around their boss. While their boss may be a leader, they are usually not more than just managers. Managers are people who have a task to perform and everything is motivated by making sure they reach a goal. Leaders don’t function that way. Having vision is not the same as having goals. Vision is about the hope of something that may happen in the future. Goals are milestones that are set that must be meet or fail.

People who encourage you to set goals are not leading you anywhere. They are trying to help you manage your life. To often that management is motivated by fear, the fear of failure. Leaders however share a vision of the future with you. If you believe in that future you have a chance to pursue it. That future may include greater relationship with your spouse or children. It may be a future full of possibilities. But what a leader won’t do is push you into that future. Their value is not measured in whether or not that future actually takes place exactly the way you see it, but that in the end the hope that future represented to you is actually fulfilled.