The Importance Of Community Building For Entrepreneurs
Dan Sullivan
I often say that our tools are designed to help entrepreneurs think about their thinking. But when you join the Strategic Coach community, it becomes bigger than that—you get the benefit of the entire group’s thinking.
There are many reasons why community building is important specifically for entrepreneurs, but the biggest one we’ve seen at Strategic Coach is that when everyone starts thinking about their thinking on a group level, amazing things happen.
It’s the best way to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset, find shortcuts you never knew existed, and break away from the isolation that most entrepreneurs know all too well. As everyone at Strategic Coach will tell you, the importance of community building cannot be overstated.
Cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset.
Entrepreneurs have a different mindset than the average person. As an entrepreneur, it often feels like you’re in a completely different world—you’re not confined to a nine-to-five job, you don’t have a paycheck arriving in the mail every month, and you’re not taking orders from anyone.
One of the biggest problems with this is that people who don’t understand your way of life can sometimes be toxic to your goals. Whether it’s because they’re jealous or they think you’re being unrealistic, there’s usually not much good that comes out of it.
It becomes extremely difficult to progress when you’re met with negative thoughts from those around you. You start to second-guess yourself, you have doubts as to whether you can really make it as an entrepreneur, and it ultimately hinders your growth. Many entrepreneurs feel like they can’t even reveal their true ambitions to the people closest to them for fear of being ridiculed.
When you belong to a community of entrepreneurs, all of those things get flipped upside down. Instead of people pushing you down with negative talk, you’re met with positive reinforcement from your fellow entrepreneurs. They’re in the same boat as you and they have the same goals, aspirations, and dreams. They want to see you succeed just as badly as you want to succeed.
If there’s one thing that clearly shows the importance of community building for entrepreneurs, this is it. Because without a community behind them, most entrepreneurs will fail before they even get started.
Can you succeed on your own as an entrepreneur? Absolutely! Many people have done it. But the vast majority of successful entrepreneurs have realized the importance of belonging to a community. It changes your outlook on life and business, and it also provides clear advantages for your business.
Finding shortcuts you never knew existed.
One of the biggest benefits of belonging to an entrepreneurial community is that you can uncover massive shortcuts that will help you to avoid the same obstacles that your fellow entrepreneurs have already faced. This knowledge gives you a huge advantage, allowing you to grow your business exponentially faster than the average person.
But the best part is that these are shortcuts you never even knew existed. They’re handed to you on a silver platter, and there’s no way you would ever discover them for yourself, outside of making the mistakes and learning from them.
Community building allows us to pool our knowledge and raise all of our fellow entrepreneurs up. I often say that being a part of the Strategic Coach community is more about giving information than receiving. By helping the entrepreneurs around us, the entire group is able to achieve their goals. I truly cannot overstate the importance of this.
Want to find out if Strategic Coach is right for you? Check out our Program Preview Package & Starter Kit to find out more about the community and our programs.
Breaking away from entrepreneurial isolation.
If I were to ask some of our Strategic Coach participants about the importance of community building for entrepreneurs, I think one of the most common responses would be related to entrepreneurial isolation.
Starting out as an entrepreneur can be a lonely experience. You don’t have office mates (you might not have an office at all), you may be working different hours than your friends and family, and it can be difficult to relate to the people around you.
This causes many entrepreneurs to become more and more isolated—and it doesn’t necessarily change once you have a fully functioning company with employees! Even entrepreneurs who are running successful businesses with a team often feel lonely because they can’t actually relate to the people around them.
When I start explaining the importance of community building to a room full of new entrepreneurs, I can see the light bulbs going off in their heads. Isolation is one of the most common problems entrepreneurs face, and joining a community is a clear solution.
Being part of a community gives us a place to be ourselves, find like-minded people, and fit in. Some people find that the investment to join an entrepreneurial community is worth it just for the community aspect alone. It often results in some of the most valuable relationships you’ll have in your entire life.
Everyone at Strategic Coach understands the importance of community building because it has had a dramatic effect on not only their businesses, but their personal lives. Just like a local town might focus on community building to improve the lives of its residents, entrepreneurs need to focus on community building to empower their fellow entrepreneurs and exponentially increase their impact.
