Communities of people, online or offline, are massively underrated. The upsides of being part of a community are nearly limitless. I’ll explain.
Luck is a choice. You can become luckier by exposing yourself to more opportunities. The worst thing to do, in terms of luck, is shutting yourself off entirely from the world. When you are locked out, you literally can’t get lucky, as there’s nothing for you to be lucky about. To find a 20$ bill on the ground you need to go out first.
The best thing to do to gather luck (e.g. opportunities), then, is to be exposed to opportunities. And being part of a community is its ultimate form, since you are exposed to others, who in turn are exposed to others, and so on. The opportunities become only limited to what you can feasibly chase.
People who are active members of a community are shown opportunities on a silver platter. As you gain trust and reputation, and others know what you can offer, you’ll see that if they find an opportunity that is suitable for you, they will share it with you. Communities are so potent that you don’t even have to scout for opportunities yourself — others will literally do it for you.
Concrete example? Out of high school, I didn’t know where to look for my first job. Yet I was part of a tight-knit online community, and one member told me the company they were working for was hiring, and that I should give it a go. He knew what my skills were and tailored his recommendation for me. I ended up getting the job, which would then bring changes later on. I got “lucky,” except it was all the work of the community.
Communities are so valuable that people will pay massive amounts of money to be part of them. If you are in university/college, for example, most of the value for you lies in the people you get to know there. In the long run, that’s where you get your money back. The education is secondary, you could get that online for free and in half of the time.
Now, communities are everywhere. If it exists, there is a community about it on Discord or somewhere else on the Internet. Yet even though communities are ubiquitous, there’s still a lot of people who are on their own. Taking the first step into the unknown can be daunting.
Socializing does not come naturally to everyone. Just like exercising or playing an instrument, it’s a skill that can and should be refined with time, and which can and should be made a habit.
Find what you are passionate about, and find a community about it. Then join, and help others out.
A community will give you the motivation and support you need to continue working on the project you were going to give up on. It will keep you accountable. It’s where you test out an idea you had. It will find you a career, another a co-founder, another still a partner.
All you need to do is take that first step.