On being tribeless

At the weekend, when I was on the Underground people watching, I came to the realisation that I’ve never really been properly part of a tribe, except perhaps as a teenager. By tribe I mean a group of people with similar interests and a shared culture/language.

As a teenager I guess I was part of the heavy metal tribe – dressed in black, listening to Metallica. It wasn’t a large tribe, nor a particularly close tribe. If anything it was more a collection of people that didn’t belong to other tribes.

I do wonder whether not belonging to a tribe has been career limiting. As a non-football supporting, non-skiing, non-recreational drug taking person I definitely miss out on some opportunities that come out of networking. However, it also means that I avoid tribal conflicts – I can work with any tribe because there aren’t negative tribal associations like supporting the wrong football team.