The Power of Communities

Impact Hub Bucharest invited me recently to create a course on the Startarium eXperience platform for entrepreneurs who are willing to start a community that would support their business. I was delighted to say “yes!” to this invitation for many reasons.

Firstly, during the last five years since I started Community Dinners , I learned a lot from practice and studied many materials regarding the dynamics of a community. Then, I came to believe communities make our lives more beautiful and make us stronger people. Last, but not least, I love the educational aspect of projects, so sharing my learnings is another way to celebrate the power that Community Dinners brought into my life and the lives of its members.

I spent the first nine years of my life in a very small Romanian village where everybody knew everybody. Hence, the roles in our society were clear and people contributed to the quality of life of other villagers. I eventually learned that villages can be one of the most powerful communities. More than that, the original community has a huge impact on our lives. This is how we learn to relate to others, it is our first encounter with culture, and it gives us a glimpse of the importance of relationships.

After we moved to Bucharest, there obviously were multiple benefits in terms of better education and even access to a comfortable bathroom with running water, but many subtle details were missing. As my family moved flats every couple of years, it was impossible to feel a sense of belonging in such a big city while regularly changing neighbourhoods.?

The next community that touched my existence was the one in my high school. I graduated from Mihai Viteazul High School, and up to this day, I still immediately bond with people I randomly meet when we realize we attended the same high school. What contributed to this sense of community was the fact that we all had a similar profile—curious, hardworking students who delivered good results in school but wanted to do more than that with their time.

Years later, the diverse, international community of INSEAD alumni gave me the feeling that I had finally found my place. Prior to this stage in my life, I often felt like an outlier. However, after getting to know my MBA colleagues, I knew that I had found my own tribe of outliers. I believe it was not for the first time I was exposed to such a diversity of profiles, but for the first time I saw its true uniqueness and necessity for my life.

With a history of moving to new places so often, it was understandable that I felt no sense of belonging or that I finally found my place. However, when I moved back to Romania at the beginning of 2019, I decided to do things differently: instead of searching for a tribe I could feel I belonged to, I realized I could create my own community of like-minded individuals willing to have meaningful conversations.?

Community Dinners started as an initiative to learn from each other's perspectives over dinner and establish a group of like-minded professionals for cultural or leisure activities. Five years later, Community Dinners has two chapters in Bucharest, with more than 120 outstanding professionals who meet regularly for meaningful conversations and other activities. There will also be an inaugural chapter in London, too, which is a work in progress.

What I did not know when I founded Community Dinners was how highly it would impact both my personal and professional life. As an entrepreneur, I could see that other entrepreneurs were facing similar challenges, I had access to a lot of resources and to a network of experienced professionals willing to help.

I find useful to mention here some key takeaways from building a community and also being a community member for other communities, a bite from what I developed in the course created for the entrepreneurs from Startarium :

A community is a journey for both founders and members. Like any journey, it feels more personal when people are going through more stages and get involved. The feeling of belonging to a community does not happen immediately; it grows after exploring, participating, contributing, and building relationships with other members. It takes time and resources.

From an initiative to a community. At the beginning, a community is only an initiative started by its founders with the intention of an objective and is driven by personal motivation. It becomes a true community when members discern the value in all parts and when the contribution and responsibilities are passed from one person - the founder to more- the core of the members, most of the time including the founder, too.

The role of a community founder is a huge privilege that comes with both challenges and rewards. However, almost all of the rewards can be experienced as being an active and relevant member in different communities.

One cannot have the same involvement in multiple communities at the same time. There are communities where we have active roles and get involved in regular activities, communities where we contribute with know-how, and communities where we are temporarily passive. This is a natural life cycle of being a part of communities.

The more is not the merrier. Being part of more communities is often very appealing, especially for those driven by FOMO (the fear of missing out). A collection of memberships in more communities does not bring instant belonging and benefits. One should choose wisely which communities they want to be a part of based on their needs, time availability, and most importantly: cost of opportunity. Have you ever asked yourself what you have to give up in order to be an active member of a community?

If you are interested in understanding more about the power of communities, both as a founder and a member, I highly recommend you check out the course on the Startarium eXperience platform.?

It is free, it has both theoretical concepts and case studies, and will allow you to connect with other individuals with similar interests. It is currently available only to Romanian speakers.

Aside from Community Dinners, I am now part of many relevant communities for me, each bringing massive value to my life in different ways. I mention here a few communities that have had a deep impact on me: the INSEAD Alumni community, both in Romania and London, the TechAngels community where angel investors meet weekly to assess start-up pitches, the community of women I created with my friends, and the Mindful Leaders Mastermind Community.?

What communities are you a part of that have impacted your life?