Community

Having grown up playing in teams and working in theatre, community is something that has always been a given for me. You have people around you, and everyone is working towards a common goal, whether it is winning the game or surviving a particularly grueling rehearsal process, you have or make friends who help keep each other going.

Part of my decision to learn digital skills and join Geek Pack was due to the online community Julia Taylor has built. Friends here provide not only technical aid, but much needed emotional support as well as we all, at varying ages, are attempting to learn and apply something new. That initial community has led to other communities (shout out to the Ducks and Cyberstrand) and we have come to rely on each other and help with not only technical difficulties that arise, but there is genuine understanding and empathy during the good times and the not so great times.

This has made me think, and rethink, a lot about online communities. As a Gen-Xer, and especially as an Elder Gen-Xer, this was not a thing for us growing up. We had groups of friends that were compiled and established around family, school, neighborhoods, and activities, but we largely did not have people we would call friends that we had never met. Maybe Pen Pals? This was the practice of writing a paper letter to someone you had usually not met in person, nor were likely to even know what they looked like, unless you mailed pictures to each other. Schools and other organizations would try to match people from different countries, so we would have the chance to learn firsthand about other cultures and places. Pretty cool, but the connection, while often strong and memorable, rarely lasted for a long period of time.

As time moved on and yes, the internet was created, I can remember my son learning to play video games, which quickly evolved into online gaming. He would beg for more Xbox Live gift cards, so he would have more minutes, playing with his online friends. Of course, now, many people have groups of online gaming friends who regularly campaign or quest together. It’s amazing to watch these groups flow together and apart as circumstance, personalities, and situations change.

So, I have personally been involved with many types of communities and have observed many other types. Here’s the part I missed, and here is the information that I hope can help be a shortcut for you and your business. While I have always appreciated and enjoyed community, it is only now, as an online entrepreneur, that I am coming to understand how imperative community is, especially when you are seemingly on your own. I know the pandemic has had a major influence on this situation, and there are many experts in this particular field (of which I am not), but speaking from my own experience, I cannot tell you how many times I would have given up and thrown in the proverbial towel had it not been for my online friends.

As you begin or continue your entrepreneurial journey, I invite you to seek out, or at least think about a few things:

• Is there someone in your inner circle who understands the small details of what you are working on? Someone you can call, text, or DM with specifics of what you are working on, and they will understand exactly what you are talking about? If not, you need to find that person. You need someone who “gets it”.
• Do you have a human person to reach out to when you get stuck on something? AI is amazing, and can often help, but you must be able to articulate the problem correctly to get the right solution. You need a human who can translate what you are able to say or mumble out and who can then help you towards the solution.
• After working for days or weeks on a particular issue (a code, a description, a turn of phrase, a character name, don’t get me started on columns, or formatting, or layout, etc.), you need someone to share that success with! Someone who will relate to the sweat and the tears that it took to complete the creation of your vision.
• As Hamlet says, “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” What judgements might you be attaching to things that are happening in your business? Are you correct or is it possible your perspective is a little off? Community can help you shift your point of view back to the center as needed.
• You need people you can check in with who are talking about the same things you are interested in. I believe many problems are often solved in what I think of as the back burners of our brain – our subconscious will be working on solutions while our bodies and hands and the front burners are doing other things. Jumping into rooms where people are writing and talking and thinking about things you are also working on can help give you ideas and avenues of thought that might not have occurred to you otherwise.

For me, as much as I appreciate and need specific answers to questions, the most important part of community is the encouragement I need and receive. It takes time and it takes work to build your network, but that network may well be the foundation of your success.  Finding or creating that small circle of people who believe in you, as you believe in them, having a safe space to say this is really hard, and having friends be able to come back and say we know! But we also know you can do it! Keep going! Priceless.