How to Startup a Movement

Smart Next Actions™

Remember that Involgize is just a device to give birth to a new intelligence culture (movement).
Remember that the generation of numerous individuals with their own unique personal intelligence brands will establish the existence of a new, strong, and vibrant intelligence culture.
Continue to create the most effective true leaders (first followers), solely, in order to form the new intelligence culture.
Acknowledge that creating fully autonomous first followers is the key to decentralisation and the formation of an indestructible intelligence culture.
Continue to always expect the best from others, and never underestimate anybody’s capacity or intellectual ability.
Continue to focus 90% of our energy on cultivating the next group of true leaders (first followers).
Consider sending the next group of Involgize leaders this book review so that they are fully aware of the bigger picture.
Continue to create digital assets (videos, pictures, etc.) profiling the intelligence journey (life-story) of at least 3 Involgizers consistently every week.
Continue to assess the public, or lack of public, profile of Involgize.
Continue to prevent anybody outside of the core group of Involgizers from having an affect on our minds or our consciousness.
Continue to think about how we can get the majority of any recognition, credit, and benefits to flow to the first followers.
Remember that the first followers will always be the actual true leaders of any entity or organisation.

Smart Learning Points

(Elaboration)

In relation to Involgize, this TED Talk reminded me that, first I needed the guts to stand out and be ridiculed. This happened when I started using social media (Instagram) in the full knowledge that I did not know how to create good logos, videos, pictures, talk on camera, etc. However, at the time, I was willing to do whatever it took to keep David focused in Birmingham University… experiment with creating a new intelligence identity and culture… and knew that proficiency was only a matter of time and practice.
In effect, D, N (in his own way), and now M (to date) have been the most effective first followers, as they aggressively showed everyone else around them how to read effectively and consistently (how to follow).
I now appreciate that it was critical that I treated D, N, and M as my equals. In other words, never under-estimating their intelligence or their capacity to learn and make their own decisions.
“Now it’s not about the leader anymore; it’s about them, plural.” My spin on this is that… “now it’s not about the leader anymore, or even Involgize. Rather, it is about each individual Involgizer functioning 90% of the time as a free thinker.” I do not want Involgizers to be in competition with Involgizers, and if Involgize is wrong for anybody then, without hesitation, they must stop Involgizing. Overall, Involgizing must be similar to carrying out a spiritual process.
The first follower (i.e. D, N, and M) is truly an underestimated form of leadership for sure, as it does take a lot of courage to stand out alongside a leader who is not known or accepted by others. Therefore, without the first followers, an organisation will not become much without them. Thus, it is essential to ensure that Involgize, or any other organisation, has a constant supply of first followers, if its long-term objectives are going to be achieved. Hence why, intuitively, I am currently stressing to others the vital importance of using the majority of our energy to cultivate a new core group of Involgizers (first followers).
In light of the fact that, psychologically, three will always be considered a crowd; the presence and profiling (on Instagram) of three Involgizers minimum may be crucial.
A movement requires the leader and the followers to be visible in public because new followers will seek to emulate the followers, and not the leader. To spin this another way. The leader and the followers will need to be visible to potential new followers in some way, but that does necessarily mean going public per se. Hence the existence of Freemasonry, which generally keeps a very low public profile.
It really is understanding that many people like to play it safe. They don’t want to stand out and risk being ridiculed, whilst also they want to be a part of the in-crowd at the same time. With such people, it is, what it is. Therefore, it is not worth giving them too much forethought. Instead, we just have to do, whatever it is that we have got to do, and if they are onboard then, so be it. But if they are not, then likewise, so be it.
So to recap, we are still currently like the first shirtless guy, so we still have to focus on nurturing our first followers (true Involgize leaders). We will achieve this by assisting them to identify their unique Genius quickly, become extremely knowledgeable quickly (10 Involgize Books), remain independent and free-thinkers, perfect their public speaking skills quickly, perfect their personal productivity and effectiveness quickly, and so on.
Hmm?… the speaker (Derek Sivers) argues that the first leader is always over-glorified because it is actually the first follower that is responsible for the growth of an organisation. Sivers would agree with me that the first followers are also the leaders, only they are just not the first leaders, so the majority of the credit usually does not flow to them directly. So, the question for me is, how do we change this situation? How do we make sure the first followers get the right recognition and credit that they deserve?
The final and main message of the TED Talk (which I initially missed) was that we do not have to always start a movement from scratch. Rather, if we discover that someone is already doing something that we can support and get behind, by being that person’s most effective first followers we will, in effect, become the most effective leaders of the movement they started. The difficult part is finding something that we can truly believe in and support that has not been typically corrupted!

Sentences and paragraphs from Derek Sivers: How to Startup a Movement TED Talk

“First, of course you know, a leader needs the guts to stand out and be ridiculed. What he’s doing is so easy to follow.”

“Here’s his first follower with a crucial role; he’s going to show everyone else how to follow.”

“Now, notice that the leader embraces him as an equal.”

“Now it’s not about the leader anymore; it’s about them, plural.”

“Now, there he is calling to his friends. Now, if you notice that the first follower is actually an underestimated form of leadership in itself. It takes guts to stand out like that. The first follower is what transforms a lone nut into a leader.”

“And here comes a second follower. Now it’s not a lone nut, it’s not two nuts — three is a crowd, and a crowd is news.”

“So a movement must be public. It’s important to show not just the leader, but the followers, because you find that new followers emulate the followers, not the leader.”

Now, here come two more people, and immediately after, three more people. Now we’ve got momentum. This is the tipping point. Now we’ve got a movement.

So, notice that, as more people join in, it’s less risky. So those that were sitting on the fence before now have no reason not to. They won’t stand out, they won’t be ridiculed, but they will be part of the in-crowd if they hurry.”

“So, over the next minute, you’ll see all of those that prefer to stick with the crowd because eventually they would be ridiculed for not joining in. And that’s how you make a movement.”

“But let’s recap some lessons from this. So first, if you are the type, like the shirtless dancing guy that is standing alone, remember the importance of nurturing your first few followers as equals so it’s clearly about the movement, not you.”

“Okay, but we might have missed the real lesson here….

“The biggest lesson, if you noticed — did you catch it? — is that leadership is over-glorified. Yes, it was the shirtless guy who was first, and he’ll get all the credit, but it was really the first follower that transformed the lone nut into a leader. So, as we’re told that we should all be leaders, that would be really ineffective.”

“If you really care about starting a movement, have the courage to follow and show others how to follow. And when you find a lone nut doing something great, have the guts to be the first one to stand up and join in. And what a perfect place to do that, at TED.”

“Source: Derek Siver’s TED Talk How to Startup a Movement”