Tales of the Revolution: True Stories of People who are Poking the Box and Making a Difference

by Seth Godin

Early in March, The Domino Project published Seth Godin’s Poke the Box. We Immediately received stories about people taking initiative in their own lives - doing things differently at work or with their families, taking initiative in places they were scared to. Prompted by the number of inspiring stories we received, we launched Tales of the Revolution, profiling examples of passionate self-starters who regularly went above and beyond to make a difference by doing. This free Kindle edition is a sampling of the hundreds of stories we received. Each one could be just the right inspiration for you to keep poking.

The Domino Project
April, 2011

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Personal Development, Self Help, Buisness, Leadership, Productivity

116 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 18, 2011

About the author

Seth W. Godin, also known as "F. X. Nine", is an American author and a former dot com business executive.

Reviews

[Rosemary Daly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a huge let-down. It should have been described as a group of advertisements. It told of people who have done things out of the box - but didn't really explain HOW they did it... Also, the book is filled with grammatical errors, spelling errors, sentence fragments, etc. How did this ever actually GET published?

On the bright side - some of the stories are truly inspirational and I will follow up on those websites and book links for more info.

[Gisela Hausmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Considering that I admire Seth Godin's work and read his blog at least four times per week, I was disappointed. Though the "Domino Project" is a grand idea , the book's concept is marvelous, and the achieved goals of the contributors are most remarkable, the book itself is disjointed and appears to be an array of fragments, even though it features complete stories. This book would have benefitted from a strong editor or a better set-up. After reading this book I appreciate Jack Canfield "Chicken Soup" series even more, his attempt of featuring stories from different people and bringing them together, becomes even more admirable after reading this book.

The first thing that struck me after about 20 pages or so is that this book has no apparent order. The book features stories from many people, who set out to make a difference and who did make a difference. There is no apparent theme other than "doing good". I could see the stories grouped into themes, "health", "environment", "amount of money the project cost", "number of people the project influenced", or any number of other criteria, yet, the order of the stories is random. Additionally, the stories have obviously not been edited but left the way the authors submitted them. That may be one of the reasons why this book received many negative reviews; readers have a hard time adapting to the changes in style. The fact that the stories have different lengths, from a few lines to a few pages, does not help; yet at least that error could have been easily avoided by asking for submissions of approximately the same number of words. Surely the writers would have obliged; they could not know how long the contributions from others were. Lastly, the headlines of the stories could have been chosen in a way to guide through the book.

Most impressive to me were the stories (listed in no particular order)
The Power of $10 Ideas
Plant Your Apple Tree
Brave Girls Club - Revolutionary Phenomenon
Fighting Poverty with ... Soap
The $100 Challenge

5 stars for idea and concept, 1 star for the execution = unfortunately only 3 stars
I sincerely hope that this book will be re-edited and designed by a strong editorial team.

Gisela Hausmann, author & blogger

[Sriram Srinivasan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book to learn about the people who poked the box and making a difference.It was a good read as people from varied background has shared their experience. Some are detailed and many are very short. That is the issue with this book. If anyone wants to learn how somebody made a difference and follow that in his life too, one needs a detailed account of what he/she did. I was amazed to see with one paragraph stories in this one.

Positives.
People with varied background were covered
Few stories were really good.

Negatives.
Too many short ones
Leaving the reader to explore more to gain more insight.

So I have rated this one as a 3 star book, and it means if you don't read this one you will not miss much.

[Matt Maples · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoy Seth Godin's book, but this book was simply a collection of people's stories who had one way or another been influenced by some of Seth's concepts. In general that's not a bad thing, but I found many of stories to short and with to little detail to really be helpful. I would recommend reading the book that this book is connected to, "Poke the Box." Then skim through this book when you have a little time.

[Jeff Raymond · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has been my on-and-off Kindle book for a few days - it's a companion piece to Seth Godin's Poke the Box written by box-pokers. It's something I hoped to get some inspiration from a bit, I guess, and it's not really a cohesive book as much as just a series of examples that probably would have weighed down Poke the Box on its own. It's successful, but unnecessary.

[Bill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some inspiring stories lost amongst a sea of ra ra and blah blah.

[Carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

A couple of stories I will follow up on. Others were incomplete or annoyingly self-promotional, with plenty of errors.

[Yvonna · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the stories are uplifting, the book is disjointed and lacks focus.

[David McClendon, Sr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, Tales of the Revolution: True Stories of People who are Poking the Box and Making a Difference by Seth Godin, is a collection of submissions about different people.

We gather that Godin, or someone on his behalf, asked people to submit the names and stories of people who “Poked the box” that is, people who did not accept the status quo and did what they needed to do and accomplished great things because of it.

Godin is the undisputed guru of marketing. This collection appears “as written” by contributors. Many of these stories are uplifting and inspiring.

We give Tales of the Revolution all five stars. We think it is inspiring and entertaining at the same time.

It appears that this book is only available in the Kindle format. This is okay because Amazon makes it easy to get free apps that allow you to read Kindle books on your computer or Smartphone.









We were given a free copy of this book through a Kindle promotion. We are under no obligation to write any review, positive or negative.

We are disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

First of all, Tales of the Revolution isn’t by Seth Godin. He didn’t write any of it, or even edit it. Instead, he just copy and pasted people’s entries, complete with typos. There were a lot of typos. Very few of the entries made sense. They were full of buzzwords and lacked any substance or even explanation of what the people were actually doing to “poke the box” (for that matter I wouldn’t classify most of them as poking the box at all). I found it interesting that in the eleven years since these “amazing” and “revolutionary” ideas were submitted only a few are still in existence. A few, like Teachers Pay Teachers, are still thriving. Some of the submissions were nothing more than living life and doing what many other people do (such as the one who reviews books she reads). At least the book was short. I didn’t find it inspiring or even very interesting. But there was a lot of Seth Godin love in the entries so I guess he did. I don’t recommend this book.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

This gets a 3 on effort. I do not remember adding it to my Kindle and only loaded it because I could not see a title for it. It is interesting but it reads like an article from Reader's Digest. It is also 9 years old so I really don't know how much is still valid. I love the idea but would prefer to get it in smaller doses.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've had this in my Kindle library for a long time, and finally decided to read it. It's a fairly random collection of essays about people who are "poking the box." I found a few interesting tidbits in here, but I really just skimmed through a lot of it.

[William Beldham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick read. Poke away.

[Fermentum · Rating 3 out of 5]

very short read. Kinda interesting.

[Paul Triller · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great compilation of everyday people making amazing differences in their neighbourhood, city, state, and nation.

[Ian Rodwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

My review is at my website:

https://workingwow.net/2021/10/31/tal...

Please head over there and take a look!

[Janette Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the week after Seth Godin published "Poke the Box", people wrote the author sharing stories of how they were taking initiative in their own lives. People were encouraged to write to The Domino Project and share stories of people who are poking the box by going above and beyond to make a difference by doing. These stories were posted and the readers voted on their favorites. Many of the submissions were about people who were making their workplaces better, some were starting a new business, and many were improving their communities or devising creative philanthropy.
"Tales of the Revolution: True Stories of People who are Poking the Box and Making a Difference" is a collection of the best ranked one hundred stories. These stories will inspire you to take the information that you received from reading "Poke The Box" and use it to make a difference in the world.
This is a quick and easy read that will plant seeds of service in the minds of anyone who reads it. The beauty of this book is that it was written as a group project and offers a very diverse look at the needs in the world.

[Lindsay Gasik · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is an unedited and apparently unfiltered collection of experiences of people doing something different. Some are fascinating and inspiring; others quite trivial and poorly written. There are typos and clunky, boring writing, and it's a lot to wade through for the few gems, which to me are:

Teachers Pay Teachers: a site for teachers to sell their lesson plans and materials they have created

Save The Males: an organization to help men deal with the anxiety or depression that causes them to act irritable or aggressive towards their family or loved ones.

50 Ways to Grieve Your Lover: help for people who have lost their partner

The Drum: a podcast/audio magazine for high quality oral literature

Rick Steves: "Free Content is my publicity stunt"

Twice As Warm: organization that matches purchases of warm clothing with donations

[Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

It got a bit old wading through all of the 'success stories'. That is the extent of this book. It is simply a compilation of successes that people had by following a recommendation in a previous book of his. In other words, lots of little vignettes of people having success in something they did. It might have been more meaningful if I had first read Poke the Box: When Was the Last Time You Did Something for the First Time? and been enthralled with it.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains the stories of many individuals who "poked the box." I haven't read Godin's book that explains what "poking the box" really is, but I gather that it is individuals who look outside of the status quo. Many of these stories are amazing! Withing these pages are found many awesome causes, many people helped, and so many instances of hope and tenacity overcoming overwhelming odds.

It is an inspirational read, and I wish to express gratitude to Seth Godin and all those who felt inspired by his words, took risks, and fought fears to make great things happen.

[Shorel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poke the box was great. This is just a collection of stories of people who wrote in to say they poked the box. I guess it's nice people are poking the box, but some were pretty out there. Would really like to get both the higher brain function activator people together, along with the guy who "reached enlightenment" after 20 minutes of meditation...and started a video podcast. But seriously, there were some people making a difference and at least everybody is poking rather than sitting.

[Maria Miaoulis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I enjoy reading inspirational books that offer a new perspective on things, I find it more helpful when real life examples are given so that I can understand the theory better. Seth thinks this as well and gathered some great stories for this compelling read. Great motivation for people who are looking to make big changes in their lives...

[MsSmartiePants ...like the candy... · Rating 5 out of 5]

Revolutionary! This little read will help you to think outside of your norms, see how to grow your own business in new ways, start your own business you may have thought wasn't "viable", as well as renew your sense of awe and wonder at our great American life!

[Anna Sellers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some very good examples of people that went out and made a difference. Some of them started businesses, but many of them started online communities and achieved things that mattered to them. This is like chicken soup for the box pokers.

[Laura Grow-Nyberg · Rating 1 out of 5]

For the most part it's poorly written, and it's definitely poorly edited. The essays are really just an ad for the other book, or possibly a self-congratulatory exercise for those who have already read it. Skip this one.

[Michele · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the stories were good, some not so much. Some were missing so much information that they weren't stories.

[Ron · Rating 2 out of 5]

companion to poke the box, got it for free, not a must read

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Seth Godin writes about people who believe in principles espoused by Seth Godin, who doesn't care what you think.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

110 pages of...

[Jamie Christensen · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some really inspiring stories in the free e-book. A good book for ingesting over time rather than quickly reading.