March 2010 Archives - David Starkweather

You might be asking yourself, “What is Tribe? And why do I want to read about them?”

Well, in this case a tribe is a group of enthusiasts who surround themselves around a product/service/person and every leader needs a tribe to lead. The books overall message is LEAD! Lead by example, lead vocally, just lead. It doesn’t matter if your leading 2 or 5,000 people, what matters is that you see the opportunity and make something happen. This is easier than ever with the onset of the internet age and social media. Finding and leading a tribe is accessible for anyone.

One of the best examples of a tribe is Apple fanboys. You’d be hard pressed to find a better, more enthusiastic and borderline crazy group of individuals that gather around one product so strongly.

So why is learning about a tribe so important? Thinking back to Apple, how awesome would it be to have such a strong support group and such a big group of fans ready to promote you/your product for you. Have you ever met a Mac fanatic? Their crazy and they love their products. And they’ll tell you how great their stuff is all day long if you let them. Talk about word of mouth!

And how do you start your tribe? Listen. Use social media tools and analytics to find out what the people you’re trying to lead are looking for and talking about. Then, give them what they want, not what you think they want. Look for people who like your product or service, ask them what they like, give them what they want and show them where they can talk about it with other people who feel the same way. Don’t yell at them and assume they’ll listen. Facilitate the discussion and point them in the right direction. Oh, and read this book for great ideas and motivation on starting a tribe of your own!

For more great info from Seth Godin, read him here or subscribe to his blog here.

Nothing to Lose is another Jack Reacher Novel from Lee Child and another quick read, 4 days, 400 pages. Not bragging though, Lord of the Flies took about 3 months and was only 200 pages!

Lee Child, a former television producer, writes good books but not great books. They’re fun to read and they’ll draw you in easily but unlike other books in this genre, specifically the Bourne series from Robert Ludlum, you’ll walk away from these satisfied but not blown away. They read much like a tv show, quick, to-the-point and exciting. There isn’t a lot of backstory but you still get a sense of just how bad-ass this Jack Reacher character is.

Nothing to Lose finds Jack Reacher (1 of 13 in Child’s series), an ex Major in the Army’s Military Police, wondering through Colorado on his way to San Diego when he passes through Hope and enters Despair, CO.

Obviously an outsider in this compny run town, Jack is immediately arrested and kicked out of town with no real cause. Nothing seems quite right with Despair.

The huge metal recycling plant on the outside of town, an MP base on the road away from the plant, the string of outsiders being thrown out of Despair and the plane that flys every night at 2 and 7 are reason enough for Jack to take a closer ok at why the people of Despair are acting so odd.

This is the fifth Jack Reacher novel I’ve read so far and by far the most disappointing. It felt like Child started writing and had a potentiallly great story going and then couldn’t decide how to finish things up. Everything leading up to the climax was good but it didn’t finish as well as hoped.

All in all it’s not a bad read and especially if you’re already into this series of books. The series as whole is good and because they are not written in chronological order, you can start wherever you’d like…perferrably not with this one though.

Here is an old post on the topic. As I’m working to develop my own personal brand, I find this to be great reference material.

100 Personal Branding Tactics Using Social Media

Read more from Chris Brogan at his blog.

Did I also mention, you can check me out on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin right now!

I finally finished Lord of the Flies. It took me about three months to finish this book, and it’s only 200 pages!

The story is about a group of boys whose plane crash lands on a remote island during World War II. All of the adults on board were killed in the crash, so the boys are left to fend for themselves.

The bulk of the story revolves around three of the boys; Ralph, the elected leader, Piggy, his supporter and the voice of reason on the island (not to mention the tolken chubby kid with glasses) and Jack, the rebel.

Throughout the book Ralph and Piggy try to maintain the sanity of the group and keep up hope for a rescue attempt. At the same time Jack learns to hunt and develops a bloodlust on the island eventually separating the group into two tribes.

A battle ultimately breaks out between the two camps ending in bloodshed and a hunt for life and death up until the boys are miraculaously rescued by a group of Navy sailors.

I thought there was a lot left out of the book that could have really upped the excitement. For example, the dead pilot/monster on the island simply dissappeared, the “lord of the flies” has a creepy interlude with one of the boys and never returned, Roger was all of a sudden cast as the most violent and dangerous character but we were never given any details or examples of what he’d done or how he camr to be the most feared boy in that tribe. It wasn’t until the last 20-30 pages that the story really grabbed me with the finale between Jack and Ralph.

I suppose this is the case with a lot of books and most people read this in junior high (for some reason I seemed to have missed all these ‘classics’ in school). As an adult reader, it did leave me wanting a lot more and while this did have the makings of great story, unfortunatly I think I’ve read it about 15 years too late.

Ever thought about putting in a new pedestal sink? Don’t. I’m so close to finishing this sink installation that I can taste it. Everything is hooked up, everything looks great…but there is this every-so-tiny leak in the drain pipe. It can almost not even be considered a leak, just a little drop every 30 seconds or so when the water is running. It is soooo frustrating.

Starting off I was highly confident of my skills (even though I’ve always said, “I don’t want to mess with plumbing!”) and everything was going so well…

demo went smooth

Demo went smooth
Drilling a hole through the floor tile was a breeze
Hooking up new water lines was a piece of cake
Drilling the wall anchors easy
The pedestal was level and in the exact place it was supposed to
The sink sat perfectly on the anchors and pedestal…it was even perfectly level!
Fitting the new drain pipes was surprisingly easy
The water turned on, hot was hot, cold was cold

…then the drip started….drip……….Drip……………….DRIP.

Nothing more frustrating...

I tightened and tightened until I thought I couldn’t tighten any more. The leak persisted…

I'm done, call the plumber

I’m giving in right now and am letting the wife call a plumber. I’m going to go hide in my basement for the rest of the night.

David Starkweather

Book Review | Tribes

Book Review | Nothing to Lose

Personal Branding | Tips from Chris Brogan

Book Review | Lord of the Flies

The Pedestal Sink Situation

David Starkweather

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