On Thu, 7 Nov 2024, 23:43 Yeshodhara B via Silklist, < [email protected]> wrote:
> > Also, I do not completely align with Balaji's defn of Network States, > mainly due to its emphasis on "founders" – maybe that's why it comes off as > a bit cultish. At ZuGrama, we want to soon have this completely > decentralized. Although, we are starting centralized with a few "founders", > we are developing a strategy for community exit soon. We prefer the term > "initiators" to "founders". > Taking off at a tangent from Yeshodhara’s post, hence a different subject line. tl;dr: Advice on finding and growing groups / collectives. (Yeah, sorry, this has wound up being much longer than the thought with which I started writing. But thank you Yeshodhara for giving me something to think about and write down.) This is for those of you who have started / founded / initiated projects that are not commercial, things you’ve done in time borrowed from the day job, family, social life, recreation, for no other reason but that you thought they were good things to do — and there are many of you here — I’m interested in your experiences in finding people to take the baton. I ask because I have started a few things over the years. Most of them were collaborative in some form. That is, they required other folk to participate for them to work. Collectives would be a good word, similar, in that respect, to Silk List. Some of these became reasonably popular. From which I can assume that respectable numbers of other people thought they were good things to be part of too. They have been enriching things for me as well: growth in skills, a wee public profile, wide and varied networks. (And literally enriching too, not from making money off them, but in getting me income opportunities from adjacent things.) I have been, I think, careful in nurturing them, learning, through trial and many errors, how to run them, set guidelines that clarify purpose while not being too restrictive. But I’ve always had a problem in trying to get other people to take things over. Many are happy to help, but not to take over or even take large responsibilities. Which means that I wind up having to be the moving force behind them. (None of them are so popular or have as fervent followers as a cult would, I hasten to say, and nobody takes me seriously enough to be a proper guru, alas.) Of course, since I am the common factor, it has occurred to me that something in the way I do these things may be sending out the signal that I don’t want to let go. And the world is full of examples of founders who refused to step down or even build and grow the next leaders. But I do want to. Perhaps it is vanity that wants these things to continue once age, health, finances, or other interests make it harder for me to continue. I also am not, by any stretch of even the most generous imagination, a good conventional manager or leader. But I do genuinely think they are good things to do. So, good people, do share experiences and wisdom gained? Thanks for reading all this! ~ peter >
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