Power in Community

I recently joined Seth Godin’s The Marketing Seminar. The premise is simple, each week, you are given a homework. a quesiton or sometimes a set of questions that you answer, it’s not a typiical questionnaire that you can answer in 1 sitting.

The questions are designed to be mulled over, thought out and requires quite a few introspection and reflection. (in fact, some of the questions are daunting and you just want to run away from) but it’s daunting because these are the questions that no one will ask.

Unlike typical classes where in you sit down and you are spoon-fed all the lessons, the beauty of this course is that the seminar is designed to be taken in, 1 question, 1 project at a time.

But the genius of the course doesn’t stop there! You are given a slew of people (classmates) that you can interact with. The main power of the seminar is not in the questions it asks although it’s a big component of it, the shining star of the whole thing is the community that surrounds it.

You are encourage to pitch in, chime into other people’s query. This seminar can be done alone, but it wasn’t designed that way.

There is power in talking about your dreams and ideas with someone, an idea on its own, while powerful, once shared and revised increases its strength exponentially.

I’m only on day 2 in terms of the questions and projects but I have found tremendous value in simply reading and interacting with my peers. I have learned so much from them and where they are in their journey.

In fact, It’s because of the seminar that I am writing again and hitting the dreaded publish button.

The seminar is a safe place to fumble, make mistakes and brain storm.

Having a community that you can turn to is such an empowering tool that I suggest that even if you work alone, you find like minded people who push you to be your best.

Being an introvert, I never thought I’d say this but being involved the community of strangers can be somewhat energizing.

Lately, it is one of the things that I look forward to visiting everyday because there are no judgments and while people there don’t give you answers to everything, what they do provide is questions that get you thinking and take action.