I just found out I’m on the cover of We Are All Weird, a new book by Seth Godin. Seth, if you didn’t know, is a business and marketing genius and the reason for my getting the votes I needed to win Dan Pink’s contest and to go to TED Global 2009 and speak at Oxford. He’s also the author of 13 best-selling business books. He rocks.

I’m third from the right on the top row - easier to see in the photo below. This matters to me because I’m on a book about weirdness first - so cool. And secondly and most importantly really, because I’m part of the story, part of Triiibes.com, Seth’s social media network (More about that in a minute). And, I’m there with several friends of mine from Triiibes.com. Friends like: Tom Bentley, the man with the Mark Twain tattoo. Tom is one of the most gifted writers and story tellers I know. Pat Ferdinandi, the Parrot lady - that’s her in the Parrot costume at the bottom, Bob Poole, the man with the lizard on his forehead, are all remarkable, funny people and I’m proud to call them friends and to share such a great cover as well.

I think the reason it rocks the most is not that it’s Seth’s book as much as it that I’m part of a larger story. I’m part of Triiibes.com. The cover is a part of our experience together over the past few years that is centered around Seth and triiibes.com. I don’t know of a lot of other social media groups I’m part of that were started, nurtured and encouraged by the person who started the group in order to further the participant’s lives and business, to explore what it means to be creative and a business person and to learn to share and give and help, and not just to support and further the founder’s interest.

Triiibes is for the benefit of the participants, not for Seth. He benefits from it, but that’s not the goal. I embrace triiibes because of that fact, because it’s all about people, and it’s not an excuse to sell books or speaking engagements or tickets to something. All that comes about as a result, but it’s not the intent or the purpose. And that’s the difference that matters, the difference I try to convey to my customers, the difference that highly successful people understand - that by making it all about your customer’s best interests first, you benefit too. Seth gets it. I get it. Many of those I work with get it. Fear, greed and worry about scarcity kill opportunity. Trust there will be enough and there will be. Share, give. Take care of yourself of course, but not to the extent that when you show up people wonder more about what you want, than what you have to offer.

Give. And one day you too may end up on a book cover with people with literary tattoos, wearing parrot costumes, balancing lizards on their foreheads and kissing a Rottweiler. And you’ll understand why it’s about the bonds, not the book. The book just explains them, the cover celebrates them.