How Important Is It To Find Your Community in Business?

There are moments in life where collectively we remember precisely where we were or what we were doing at that exact time.  For my parents’ generation, those defining moments were either the assassination of JFK or MLK. But for me, I knew on election day 2008, I knew that we would define my generation by two events as well – the 9/11 terror attacks and the election of Barack Obama, the first African American president.

Election Night 2008

I can still see the television, feel the chair beneath me, and hear the loud roar of the neighborhood when President Obama won.  Everyone came outside. Everyone was excited, happy, and hopeful.

At that time, the election of President Obama felt like the United States had turned a corner. America was finally ready to expand its promise of We, the People to all of us, not just the white majority. Now everyone would have the opportunity to gain full membership into the great American experiment. No career was off limits. No door was impenetrably closed.  

That time also felt like America was re-evaluating the very idea that you had to melt into one homogenous, white pot to be accepted in this country.  Instead, we were finally being told, in a real way, that it was our differences, not our similarities, that made us the great American community.

What is A Community?

Communities create a sense of belonging, and belonging is a basic human need right up there with food, water, and shelter.  When you belong, it means that you are accepted as a member or part of a group.

On a micro-level, belonging to a group like a family or close friendship means having a support system when dealing with the ups and downs of life.  On a macro-level, belonging to a community like a religious, civic, or professional organization means that you have people who understand your beliefs, speak the same language, and are working toward the same objective.  

We all need to feel a sense that we belong and will go to great lengths to get that feeling.  

What About Community and Entrepreneurship?

It’s no different when it comes to business. We’ve all heard that we need to “find our tribe” if we want to be successful.  As I discussed in this post, your tribe is your 1,000 true fans, and finding those fans is the key to business success in the online world.  But finding your community is also important for riding the waves of entrepreneurship personally.

What no one ever explains about entrepreneurship is that it’s as much an exercise in business growth as it is in personal development. In quoting one of his mentors, Jim Rohn once said, “If you want to be wealthy and happy, learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job.”  

Self-development is an ongoing process that is just as important in business as increasing your revenue.  Both take awareness, flexibility, and the ability to maintain faith in your vision no matter what. And having a community around you while do that just makes the whole thing a lot easier.

In business, though, you can’t surround yourself with folks from any community. You need a safe space.  A safe space in business is a community of folks where you can be real, vulnerable, and honest about your wins, failures, and shortcomings.  That community must be willing to support you and hold space for your vision even when you can’t do it for yourself. They also should be business savvy enough to provide advice and counsel when you need help to tackle a business challenge.

Finding Your Community is Important

So how important is it to find your community?  The bottom line here is that finding your community is vitally important to your personal health and the health of your business.  As the famous African proverb notes, “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

We all want to build long-lasting, sustainable businesses.  To do this we need community, and making an investment in the process of community building is one of the greatest gifts you can give to yourself and to your business.

Are you apart of any business communities that have really helped your business grow? Is there a community that you would like to join? I’d love to hear about your experiences in communities in the comments below.