No Longer Reaching (Tribe)

In today’s world of ultra connectivity, we are literally just a click away from ‘connecting’ with basically every person in the world. The people we haven’t seen in years frequent our screens with pictures and updates about their lives. The strangers we’ve never met, but have mutual friends with; their lives pop up in our everyday online world as well. We are constantly ‘connected,’ yet many of us feel so ‘disconnected.’

I read a book recently by one of my favorite authors, Seth Godin, called ‘Tribe.’ Seth made a lot of great points in his book, but the biggest one that stood out to me was that it’s better to serve a small group of people close to you really well, than it is to vaguely serve a large group you barely know.

“An individual artist needs only a thousand true fans in her tribe. It's enough.”

- Seth Godin, from his book ‘Tribes’

He also stated that when I make something, I should share it with first with 10 people closest to me. If they like it, it can spread. But if the people closest to me don’t even like it, what reason would I have for believing everyone else will? If they don’t like it, it may need more work.

It goes back to the idea of service. What is my purpose for what I’m making? What need am I serving? If I serve the people closest to me well, maybe my work can spread. But they probably won’t spread if I try to skip all the people near me, and aim towards strangers I’ve never met.

I’m no longer reaching in my life. I’m not aiming for the attention of an imaginary stranger I’ve never met, 1,000’s of miles away from me. I’m not bypassing my friends and family on a path to ‘somewhere else’. I’m right here, in this time period, in Southwest, Missouri, making work for these people. I’m going to start by thinking about something I can make for my students, my coworkers, my family, and my friends. If it’s good, maybe then it can spread.