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This is not the community you’re looking for

by tdhurst · 12 comments

We all can’t be leaders. We all can’t succeed at once. We all can’t avoid failure.

And we’re starting to lose faith.

Perhaps it’s time for us to adjust our expectations.

For many (okay me), Ignite was meant to be a launching pad. We get the best and the brightest to present their passions and magic happens. Problem was, too many people expected Ignite to evolve beyond that. We expected Ignite to evolve into a TEDx type of event, but in reality, the next step past Ignite was to do something WORTHY of presenting at a TEDx event.

ImprovAZ fell victim to this, too. Participants showed up, did what they were told and expected some sort of transformation into skilled people. No one wanted to put in the work.

They wanted to show up, say/do something and then become famous, just like how they think Twitter/web celebrity works.

But it doesn’t. It requires actual work. It requires actual sacrifice. It requires tension, conflict, resolution and compromise. It also requires a winner and a loser.

People were too afraid to fail, so they kept on showing up, hoping someone else would drag them along. It didn’t work.

To succeed, you have to learn to fail first.

This is not the community youre looking for

Tagged as: Celebrity, Health, ignite, Online Communities, Social network, tedx, twitter

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  • Will Bradley

    Absolutely agree with the premise (if not the context, since I’m not closely involved in this.) I commented on Jeff’s post that defining groups (or communities) in such a way that self-manages these expectations can greatly reduce these tensions. Maybe Ignite isn’t supposed to be TED, and Improv isn’t supposed to be skillful.

    That aside, people need inspiration in order to become leaders and achieve goals, which is why I applaud anyone who even attempts a leadership role (Jeff and Derek being two immediate examples.) A year ago I didn’t know anyone like Jeff or Derek (or the groups of people I feel they represent) existed– the fact that they do, and are organizing quite-successful things, inspires me to support them and organize things myself. 2010 is looking to be a way better year than 2009, from my perspective. I hope nobody gets discouraged.

  • Will Bradley

    Absolutely agree with the premise (if not the context, since I’m not closely involved in this.) I commented on Jeff’s post that defining groups (or communities) in such a way that self-manages these expectations can greatly reduce these tensions. Maybe Ignite isn’t supposed to be TED, and Improv isn’t supposed to be skillful.

    That aside, people need inspiration in order to become leaders and achieve goals, which is why I applaud anyone who even attempts a leadership role (Jeff and Derek being two immediate examples.) A year ago I didn’t know anyone like Jeff or Derek (or the groups of people I feel they represent) existed– the fact that they do, and are organizing quite-successful things, inspires me to support them and organize things myself. 2010 is looking to be a way better year than 2009, from my perspective. I hope nobody gets discouraged.

  • Bryan

    Yeah, so what, anyways…I like my cucumbers pickled.

  • Bryan

    Yeah, so what, anyways…I like my cucumbers pickled.

  • Tyler Hurst

    I concur. 2009 felt like a bit of a sophomore slump.

  • Tyler Hurst

    I concur. 2009 felt like a bit of a sophomore slump.

  • Jeff Moriarty

    Could not agree more on the getting involved. I’m hoping more people start their own ideas, groups, events, sites, and whatever in 2010. Some people grumble they can’t go to everything, but that’s fine by me! If there’s so much cool stuff going on I can’t attend it all, I’ll be thrilled. People just need to roll up their sleeves and hop in where they feel drawn.

    I’m not sure what you meant by winners and losers. There will definitely be failing. Woooo, I got that down to a science now. But I’ve never tried to succeed at the expense of anyone else. This isn’t a zero-sum game… we all benefit and build on each other.

  • Jeff Moriarty

    Could not agree more on the getting involved. I’m hoping more people start their own ideas, groups, events, sites, and whatever in 2010. Some people grumble they can’t go to everything, but that’s fine by me! If there’s so much cool stuff going on I can’t attend it all, I’ll be thrilled. People just need to roll up their sleeves and hop in where they feel drawn.

    I’m not sure what you meant by winners and losers. There will definitely be failing. Woooo, I got that down to a science now. But I’ve never tried to succeed at the expense of anyone else. This isn’t a zero-sum game… we all benefit and build on each other.

  • Tyler Hurst

    Not EVERYTHING we do will have winners and losers, but some will. We have to accept that.

  • Tyler Hurst

    Not EVERYTHING we do will have winners and losers, but some will. We have to accept that.

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