Where Credit is Due

I just finished reading the new book by Seth Godin: Tribes. The book is essentially about "opportunities for leading your fellow employees, customers, investors, believers, hobbyists, readers...etc." One of the sections is called "Where credit is due"

It says that leaders don't care about credit...this made me think of the shark community: photographers, videographers, scientists, non-profits, activists, and the hundreds of online communities that have sprung up on Facebook and other social networks. It is unfortunate to see that lack of togetherness because too many people want credit - they want credit for bringing the media’s attention to something, changing a law, making a movie, getting a grant…the list goes on.

I see the bickering between people on Shark Group forums; I have heard that scientists do not like one another and that organizations refuse to work together. Too many people have their own agendas and are just using sharks and their misfortune as an opportunity to springboard themselves to “fame”. If everyone’s agenda was to save sharks - sharks would be safer today.

Unfortunately I feel that our shark community has no leader and therefore not as much gets done and change is slow. I hope that whoever reads this does not in any way feel attacked (and if you do, you are probably one of the people that wants credit).

The section of the book ends with: "There's no record of Martin Luther King Jr. or Gandhi whining about credit. Credit isn't the point. Change is."

Credit isn't the point. Change is.