Ev BogueWhy we're all leaders now.
Digital business used to be all about Tribes.
Your 1,000 True Fans was a pretty sure path to success, if you could read enough about marketing to figure out how to find them out on the Net.
The social dynamic on the Net changes through space/time though, and suddenly we find ourselves in a point of transition again. The premise of Tribes is on its way out, and a new paradigm is coming into existence.
What this evolution looks like is up in the air. Many of us who had it all figured out are now being directed to observe the ebb and flow of the Internet with an open mind.
In 2011, there are suddenly no fans. There is no audience.
We are all leaders now.
...and what power does the word 'leader' have, when everyone is one?
Part of the giant global transformation that we're seeing is pretty extraordinary. People are waking up to the idea that they no longer want to read about what someone else is doing, instead they want to do it themselves...and they do.
In a world full of screens, we find ourselves in an interesting point in history... We're all the hosts of the nightly news of me. We're all stars in a sitcom about me. We're all captain of our own Enterprise.
In the world before, we were reminded constantly that we were not the center of gravity.
We sat down at our televisions, flipped on the remote and saw people doing more important work than we'd ever have an opportunity to engage in. We went to the library, opened a book, and read about more important ideas than we'd ever have. We read blogs with huge followings and were told that we'd be successful if we only sucked up long enough to the blogger who was running the blog.
This is pretty much over now, at least in the online space that I frequent.
The last remnants of the industrialization of the world have released their last exhale... before we all get to take center stage in our own personal universe.
We're all doing more important work (in the minds of ourselves) than the next person.
What this looks like is an investigation. That's why this document is a living work, instead of a be-all-end-all post that proclaims to tell you everything about everything. You will have to do your own exploration to find out whether what I say is true for yourself.
When everyone is finding their own center of gravity in a world where only a few were in charge, our world suddenly requires a new way of thinking.
My feeling of what matters now:
In a world where everyone is a leader, those who succeed will be the ones who routinely blank their slate in order to find alignment within themselves and their work.
The thing about leaders is they always think they know which way is best. They are advice givers. I know this well, because I've always done it well.
The thing is, the best advice has always been simple "look within yourself and you'll know the right action to take."
When everyone comes into an understanding that they, and only they, can tell them the correct path to walk, the people who make a living saying "go here, do this" are in for a challenge.
A world full of leaders is a world without personal insecurity. You don't need permission from me to be awesome anymore, instead you go out into the world and become awesome.
We are all plugged in to a network of many parts, the power is acknowledging that in order to step forward towards the edge, we have to realize that we aren't alone out here anymore.
We're surrounded by an infinite abundance of people with permission to do the impossible -- and we're all in this together.
We need to acknowledge regularly, perhaps in every moment, that we actually don't know how to do anything. Beginner's mind.
We need to remember that at one point in human history, we thought the whole universe revolved around Earth. Then we got up the nerve to stop burning scientists at the stake who discovered otherwise and begin to acknowledge that each and every one of us is simply a grain of sand in an infinite ocean.
So where are we now?
We've all completely embraced the idea that we know exactly what to do ourselves. The next step is realizing that everyone around us has come to an identical conclusion.
...we need each other, acknowledged as equals, to help us move forward.
Perhaps the business model behind this emergent reality is no longer 1,000 true fans.
Instead we find ourselves in a world much harder for us to bear witness: 1,000 true equals.