A Lesson in Community (Learned by Failing to find one)

This is one of those articles I've had on my mind for years. The title has been written on my whiteboard for over 3 years, and it's still there.

Your community is everything, be that in your personal life or your professional endeavors. Cultivating that community is something that takes time and a sensitive touch. You want to bring as many engaged people around your idea, without inviting in toxicity. This is a difficult balance and one that takes a lot of effort.

But where am I coming from with this?

Throughout my career, I've struggled to find my place. I surrounded myself with the types of people I thought I should work with, and I focused on objectives over everything else. Doing this, I lost a part of me that was very important and fell into a place where I couldn't recognize myself. These places were cold and transactional, lacking humanity, and focused solely on a goal. There was no room for true connection.

The last year has taught me differently.

When I finally made my way to my first Games conference since the pandemic, I found myself surrounded by a different kind of people. They were still enthusiastic about getting business done, but also about understanding who the people behind the business were. I was lucky enough to find a few interested in who I was as a person, not just as a service. These people saved me from myself, and made me realize something I had been ignoring for a long time.

Connection is Everything.

It's a simple lesson, but one that I think gets forgotten often in doing business. We get caught up with the numbers, and the payroll, and the growth plans, and we end up forgetting, that behind all these things, are the people who help make it happen.

In this world of hyper-connectivity, sometimes we forget how to be our genuine selves. We augment our behaviors to fit in with a pre-conception of where we should be, instead of the place we need to be. We stop looking at relationships as things to cultivate, and more as transactions that we need to come out on top of.

It won't work.

Don't change your ideals to fit into some group that doesn't understand you. Instead, approach relationships from a place of understanding and empathy. Surround yourself with a community that you want to engage with, and wants to engage with you. Invest in making a space where people feel safe and can be themselves. It sounds so simple putting it down in words, but it is a process that takes care to do it right.

But if you do, it will pay off. This is the lesson I learned.

Earnestly invest in your community, and they will take the time to invest in you.