Nathan Hangen

Building Bridges to Infinity [GCN-6]

Identify and Destroy

I’ve talked a lot about problems lately. Some of that is because I’m working through an array of them in my own business, but I also think it’s necessary to clearly identify problems before you can devise a solution to them.

In short, some of the problems we’ve discusses are:

• Idea Incest and Lack of Originality
• The Need for Leaders
• Not Reaching the People that Really Need Our Help
• Not Moving the Bigger Needles
• Being Afraid to Be Real
• Putting the Cart Before the Horse…i.e. What about the Products?

As I see it, these are some hefty problems and they have to be solved. The problem though, is that many of us are trying to solve them on our own.

There’s a fine line between friends, readers, and customers. It’s hard to market to friends, so we try not to make too many of them. It’s hard to sell something when everyone else is selling the same thing…usually to the same people.

So we sit in our own little offices and devise clever marketing strategies and branding tactics in order to attract more customers from the other guy. In the end, we find ourselves digging in and preparing for war. Underneath all of the nice guy formalities, we’re trying to think of ways to beat each other.

And so it begins…back to you vs me. Business vs. consumer. Business vs. business. It’s a nasty place to be isn’t it?

But it doesn’t have to be that way….in fact, I’d say it’s critical that it isn’t.

Building Partnerships

If you and I have exchanged an email, comment, or Tweet at some point…there’s a high probability that I’ve approached you about working together in some fashion…whether through a partnership, JV, guest post, or brainstorming session.

To some, I’m a fool for taking on so much work. But here’s the way I see it:

I’m only capable of so much on my own. I only have so many skills that I can use, develop, or learn. I only have so much time in a day.

The same is true of each one of you.

As someone that spent a year working 8-12 hours/day trying to do everything on my own, I realized rather quickly that it doesn’t work.

Doing so creates two obstacles:

1. A scarcity mindset
2. Inability to Scale

Now, if you know me at all, you know that I’m far from a kumbaya (Live the Dharma aside) blogger and I’m quite heavily entrenched in the process of creating profit…but at some point…you have to stop doing everything on your own.

First of all, it stands to reason that if I promote you to my readers or to my friends…then it not only helps you…not only helps my readers…but also helps the industry.

It also stands to reason that if you have something great to offer the world, that I would be a fool not to find a way to help you promote it, whether I make a commission or not.

1. I’m building a relationship with you.
2. I’m helping you succeed.
3. It’s possible that we can create a partnership that benefits both of us.

The Power of Momentum

Now, when you and I combine our efforts, that’s pretty cool. But when you and I can combine what we’re doing with what two others are doing…we’re on to something powerful.

When those two teams leverage the power of other teams, suddenly we’ve created something capable of changing the world.

I call this building bridges to infinity, because when combining the most powerful aspects of multiple individuals, you create a force that is capable of taking on the infinite.

Now, this doesn’t mean that we all have to create a product together, but one of the reasons I created this area was so that powerful people, such as yourselves, could find ways to create bridges capable of carrying extremely heavy loads.

And we need these bridges because we’re dealing with some heavy stuff…

Great ideas are heavy. Empowered people are heavy. This members area is heavy.

Heavy not with excess, but with potential.

Human networks are some of the most powerful networks on the planet. Human networks are how ideas collide. They’re how chain reactions occur. We might have our own business, but we’re not in business alone.

And so I ask you…or perhaps even challenge you…to see the world not from a me vs. you scenario, but from an us against the infinite scenario.

I know that none of you here are offenders, but if your journey was anything like mine, you may have been at some point.

All I’m asking is that we step out of the darkness of our solitary world and start building more bridges. Start building networks. And start creating something powerful. More…often.

It might sound esoteric, but the truth is that in helping you, I help myself, to help the world. If we want to move big needles, we need to become big ourselves.

Now who’s got a hammer?

Other Posts

• Podcast: The GPL is Marxist
• Are You Not Entertained?
• I’m Taking the Gloves Off
• Where 99% of Bloggers Go Wrong
• Social Media Has Become a Virus

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