Derek Sivers presented this unique media/societal essay on one of my favourite principles of life, which explains: (
in business, as well!) the tantamount importance it is to cultivate/nurture the first followers / "early adopters", as they hold the real sway in audience realisation.
It is a metaphorical tipping point between being a solitary rebel who most do best to ignore, and the moment before the flood gates open up, and everyone realises that the notion isn't as crazy as they had it out to be.
-- {
to note: presentation was given at the TED Conference 2010, and it uses the wildly-impressive youtube video of a lone shirtless man at a concert. More specifically, it follows the premise of one wacky guy, at the 2009 Sasquatch Festival, and because he never let his go of his free spirit to express himself, (i.e. dance) he ended up starting a humongous dance following by just converting a couple of waywards, into adopters. THIS is my favourite alternate version of just went down that day (during the Santogold performance of the show).}
author's comments:
I gave this short 3-minute talk at the TED Conference yesterday [Feb. 10, 2010] and got a standing ovation!
Transcript
click to show If you've learned a lot about leadership and making a movement, then let's watch a movement happen, start to finish, in under 3 minutes, and dissect some lessons:
A leader needs the guts to stand alone and look ridiculous. But what he's doing is so simple, it's almost instructional. This is key. You must be easy to follow!
Now comes the first follower with a crucial role: he publicly shows everyone how to follow. Notice the leader embraces him as an equal, so it's not about the leader anymore - it's about them, plural. Notice he's calling to his friends to join in. It takes guts to be a first follower! You stand out and brave ridicule, yourself. Being a first follower is an under-appreciated form of leadership. The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader. If the leader is the flint, the first follower is the spark that makes the fire.
The 2nd follower is a turning point: it's proof the first has done well. Now it's not a lone nut, and it's not two nuts. Three is a crowd and a crowd is news.
A movement must be public. Make sure outsiders see more than just the leader. Everyone needs to see the followers, because new followers emulate followers - not the leader.
Now here come 2 more, then 3 more. Now we've got momentum. This is the tipping point! Now we've got a movement!
As more people jump in, it's no longer risky. If they were on the fence before, there's no reason not to join now. They won't be ridiculed, they won't stand out, and they will be part of the in-crowd, if they hurry. Over the next minute you'll see the rest who prefer to be part of the crowd, because eventually they'd be ridiculed for not joining.
And ladies and gentlemen that is how a movement is made! Let's recap what we learned:
If you are a version of the shirtless dancing guy, all alone, remember the importance of nurturing your first few followers as equals, making everything clearly about the movement, not you.
Be public. Be easy to follow!
But the biggest lesson here - did you catch it?
Leadership is over-glorified.
Yes it started with the shirtless guy, and he'll get all the credit, but you saw what really happened:
It was the first follower that transformed a lone nut into a leader.
There is no movement without the first follower.
We're told we all need to be leaders, but that would be really ineffective.
The best way to make a movement, if you really care, is to courageously follow and show others how to follow.
When you find a lone nut doing something great, have the guts to be the first person to stand up and join in.
[
mydd.]