The Power of Community
You alone cannot succeed. I will say it again: you alone cannot succeed. Now, swallow that ego and pride, and enjoy the ride.
The true potential of any success lies in serving a community. You can become the most successful and fulfilled person once you unlock the unique way you can serve a community.
In my previous jobs, before starting my own agency, I was miserable. There were many reasons for my misery, but the main one was feeling unfulfilled. I felt like we were wasting our genius and talents in pursuit of nothing but dollars. Companies assembled teams of the brightest engineers and designers, and all we were doing was building some meaningless products that told us how busy a neighborhood bar was. Who gives a damn? If you're curious, just go there. Doing this menial work drove me insane. I wanted more, way more.
After opening my own firm, I had the freedom to do so. Admittedly, it wasn't easy to work on amazing, impactful projects all the time because many of them were underfunded. However, staying true to your course and principles will invite more projects that you love. The most significant part of finding your community is vocalizing and signaling your beliefs. Let's pause this thought for a second and come at it from a different angle...
I love to travel a lot. Through traveling and living in different countries throughout my life, I learned about the power of community. Humans are herd creatures by default. We always look for a way to belong. Communities in cities and towns are formed by a group of people sharing something in common. Most of the time, it's their heritage. That's why in every major city, there is a Dutch community, Jamaican community, Russian community, Haitian community, and neighborhoods. These people share something in common and tend to group together. It's the same reason kids wear band t-shirts. They want to signal that they are seeking like-minded fans and form circles within.
Once that observation was made and solidified in my brain through travels, it was easy to apply it to work. Finding my community in a newly formed business was hard because I didn't know what I was doing. I knew that I wanted to do something good for the community, but being so broad, I had no sense of belonging, no purpose, and no way of signaling my tribesmen.
Only when we became honest with ourselves in our own team did we learn that we care about design and health and wellness. Design was a default creative community because we were all creative on the team; after all, this was a creative agency. We grew up in this circle; this was our default community. Our secondary community came from our experience in the field. Health and wellness affect us all, which was the reason why I started my company – as an answer to a mental health breakdown and seeking ways to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
Now that I have identified our communities, the next step was signaling to others that we have arrived and are here to help. The beauty of it was that it came naturally. These things were our passion. We did not need to fake interest, connections, or expertise because this was our home. We knew everything here. It was just time to meet fellow community members.
One thing that every community shares, no matter where you are in the world, is language. Every community has its own language, customs, and traditions. Learning to speak the language and embracing the traditions is a fast way to become an integral part of the community. This is one of the most crucial things to master early on. That's why I always urge people to niche down. Niching down is nothing but a fast way of learning a community's language and traditions. When you are a generalist, you have to master the languages of many communities, but by picking a niche, you just need to know one.
The second thing that makes a community is shared pain points. This is why every city has low-income areas, high-income areas, creative areas, and financial areas. They all share pain points. Knowing your community's pain points will make you a leader and an expert in the community. So when there is an issue, you are one of the first people your tribe will turn to for answers.
Brands and many companies in today's world are shifting how they operate. They are moving away from the standard B2C format and turning to serving communities, not just single individuals. They realize that serving a community leads to more sales because there are more than one person with the same problem or desire.
Communities are your superpowers. When you have a strong and tightly knit circle, you won't need to spread yourself thin trying to win over everyone in the world. You just need to conquer the hearts of a few. Build a community, and those people will go to battle for you if you do right by them. They are likely to invest more in you in their lifetime. This is why neighborhood restaurants and shops are able to stay in the same community for generations. So I urge you to find your community, master their language, learn about their problems, and live to serve them well. In return, you will lead a prosperous, fulfilling life.
