Tuesday, June 5, 2012

The Social Component - Who Cares For Me?

Steve's latest article Self-Discipline and Social Pressure got me thinking. So here I sit, wondering who cares if my fancy new income stream will succeed or not.

For me, the social component is not really about self-discipline. I have plenty of that. And I'm well capable of putting pressure on myself - sometimes I'm too good at that. Besides, Steve's article talks to me about something else that just self-discipline and social pressure. It talks about connections, networking. And that is what got me thinking.

Here is what Steve wrote today:
Suppose you want to earn more passive income. Why should anyone care? Why should anyone want you to succeed?
hmm...

My dear husband would probably be the first to care. I really want to pull this off so that he can also resign from his job. Then we both will be free. I know resigning is going to be hard for him and it would really help him if he could say that he is going to be entrepreneur. Having to say "I have no idea what I am going to do" like I did would be much harder for him than it was for me.

The next one to care would be the WebServerGuru. He is creating his own passive (or semi-passive) income stream in his start-up company. And I'm helping him as an exchange for his expertise. They could not afford me otherwise and I would not want to work for money anyway. He would not probably be happy if I decided to stop. Of course I could not do that to him, even if something would happen to this project. He just does not know that, I guess, so he cares.

The next ones would be my parents and my sister and brother. They would like to see me succeed. My sister is actually working on a similar project herself. I do care for her and I hope that she succeeds too.

But beyond that. Who cares? The people who will love my products don't know I exist. I don't even know what I will be creating! That made me a bit sad but then I realized that this project has a social component bigger than just bringing value for someone.

For a some time now I've felt that I don't belong. People who I have spent time and worked with are interested in things that no longer interest me. I have changed, and others have too, but to another direction. Wondering who cares made me realize that whatever I am doing here is going to get me the social connections that I need so much. I want to spend time with people who think like I do. I want to work on inspiring project with people who really care and are enthusiastic about what they do.

I can honestly admit that I am on a journey now. I don't have a "life purpose", I have not defined goals for myself as a person. I just know I love to create things. I enjoy when people get happy. I love it when I publish something and get comments like this one:
You have no idea how awesome this is! Maybe you do but just in case let me tell you again, THIS IS FUCKING AWESOME! Thank you :D
Yeah, I love that! It just makes me smile. Thank YOU! I will continue creating stuff for you even though you never click my adds, honeys!

4 comments:

  1. You pose interesting questions that I feel that most individuals who embark on these journeys wonder. I guess the answer arises when you complete your goal? Then you can sit back and see everything from an impartial view. You probably have more people interested in what you do, than you realize. It always is like that.

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    1. Thanks Lisa-Marie, I think you are right. At the moment I can work with this answer :)

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  2. Hi Jaana, I've been reading the updates to your blog via email for the past few weeks. I'll try to comment more as you go along but it's great to see how far you've gotten already, and just so you know, I care! It's fascinating (and highly useful for me too) to read about how you're doing this as typically I'm not too great at organising myself.

    I'm definitely an ideas man, I have over 10 projects on the go right now ranging from communities of musicians almost 50,000 strong to e-commerce, education, blogging and affiliate marketing. I'm basically working all hours of the day, every day of the week. I love it though! I love to create just like you. Reading blogs like yours (when I get a minute) helps me to organise my thoughts and it's very much appreciated. Keep up the great work :)

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    1. Thank you Dave! That was a really encouraging comment :)

      Thank you for also telling about your projects, when I was reading your blog I only spotted your community for musicians (drummers, right?).

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