Why Finding and Building Your Community Is Revolutionary
A completely underrated lifehack
“With my family, I’m a communist. With my close friends, I’m a socialist. At the state level of politics, I’m a Democrat. At higher levels, I’m a Republican, and at the federal levels, I’m a Libertarian.” - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
This quote made me reapproach how I want to live my life.
You obviously want to share everything with your family and for everyone to feel equal. But, when this same approach is applied to a nation though… disaster.
The “close friends” aspect requires careful consideration.
There are benefits from your friend circle you are not properly harnessing.
And, perhaps between the close friends and state level, there is a place where magic can happen.
Your community.
Making the most out of your friendships
With the proper relationship dynamics between your friends, you could all be a lot wealthier than you are today.
I’m willing to let my friends use my belongings… Are you?
With this approach, you could use luxuries you would not be able to afford otherwise.
Let me give you an example.
If you have a pool at your house your friends can use, they now have the luxury of owning a pool without having to do the maintenance required.
Cool perk, right?
Well, it’s not cool if they’re milking you for your pool. It would probably get annoying.
Unless… they have something you can use too. Say, a boat?
Now, you can use their boat whenever you want without having to maintain or buy one.
Great trade! Let’s take it further.
What if you had a pool, Ted a boat, George a Ferrari, Frank a beach house and Pablo a private jet (Pablo is ballin’)?
There is a good chance none of you can afford all of the above, but if each of you could afford one of them, you now all have the perks of many luxuries without having to pay for them.
See my point?
There is a benefit to cleverly planning a life with your friends.
But, what about on the community level?
Nurturing a strong community
I would not advocate sharing everything within your community. It is too hard to nurture fully trusting relationships with that many people.
But, there are other ways to approach this.
Before we get to that though, let’s talk about finding your community in the first place.
There are a couple of different communities I want to talk about.
A community of like-minded people
The community you live in
1) Like-minded people
Thanks to the internet, you can find like-minded people anywhere.
Whether you play video games with them, talk about space or play fantasy sports together, you can find people to build relationships with nearly anyone.
How do you nurture this community?
You talk about the interests that brought you together in the first place. Chances are you have similar goals too.
On top of that, there is a good chance someone in that group has done something you wish to do.
This means your community of like-minded people serves not only as peers on your journey but also as mentors to help get you there.
Finding this community and benefiting from it is something few of us do.
But, it is something that will become increasingly easy and beneficial as technology advances.
So, what kind of community would you like to be a part of and what will you do when you find it (or create it)?
2) The community you live in
Perhaps it is because we spend most of our time online now, but it seems as if people talk less to their neighbours.
There is less of a sense of community in our neighborhoods and that is a great loss.
As I said before, you may not want your neighbours jumping in your pool, but there are other ways to nurture these relationships.
For example, one of your neighbours might not work during the day and stays with his kids at home. Instead of paying for a daycare when you go to work, they could look after your kids.
In exchange, you could offer something similar when they go to work.
It could even be as simple as walking each other’s dogs when the other is busy or taking turns mowing lawns so you have a week off.
This can go further though.
What if one person were to donate to build a basketball hoop at the park nearby? What if each person in the neighbourhood decided to contribute to uplifting the community?
Not only would the quality of life go up for everyone allowing everyone to access something they wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford (the same way you use your friend George’s Ferrari), but the value or property in your community would go up.
Everyone wins in this scenario.
Your net worth, quality of life and free time increase all while connecting the community and making a safer neighbourhood.
Sounds pretty awesome to me.
Do people still community meetings?
Closing thoughts
It feels as if humans are becoming more connected and less connected at the same time.
There are great benefits to staying connected both in person and online. The problem is going too far in one direction will make you fail to nurture the benefits of the other.
Finding a community you belong in online and a strong one to live in is a great way to build a high-quality life for your family.
Thanks for reading