Keep your circle small

February 07, 2015 1:32 PM

I’ve always been a fiercely independent person.

I love connecting and conversing and communing and cocreating with people. I cherish the centers of belonging in my life. But from an organizationally sanctioned standpoint, I’m just not a joiner. Niches and scenes and cliques and teams and tribes and unions and circles and industries and clubs and associations, these groups just aren’t appealing to me.

I prefer to answer to myself. My niche is me. I am my own genre. And it only took me thirty years to learn that about myself.

Interestingly, my comedy hero famously felt the same way. Carlin was a man of independent functioning. An individualist who bucked the system. He once said to avoid teams at all cost. To keep your circle small. To never join a group that has a name. Even if you must join, don’t participate. It will be your death. And if they tell you that you’re not a team player, congratulate them on being observant.

He may have been trying to make us laugh, but he was also trying to make us think. Because the reality is, some of us are just wired that way. Joining doesn’t make our spirit come alive. There’s no need for us to gather under the same roof with people. We keep our assemblies dinner party sized.

Which doesn’t mean we’re apathetic or antisocial, it simply means we don’t have high affiliation needs. Our fire is fueled elsewhere. Our loyalty is to our own work and our own network of loved ones and respected others.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Are you a joiner?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For a copy of the list called, “22 Unexpected Ways to Help People,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

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Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com