Please, take three minutes of your time to watch this wonderful and funny TED talk on How to Start a Movement:

It might seem counter-intuitive to start this piece on facilitating local leadership with a speech about following.

But Sivers is spot on: The first follower is actually an underestimated form of leadership in itself. Keep that in mind.

Ten Easy Steps for Creating the 757′s Next Big Thing

Step One is figuring out is if there’s some other existing individual or group out there that shares your mission. You do this for a few reasons:

- To not waste your time. Why blaze a trail when there’s already one blazed ten feet away? Better to join up with that group and help them move closer to their horizon.

- To not possibly fracture the existing movements. There will always be limited time and resources. Better to keep it consolidated (as long as all agree on the mission.)

- Who knows… the best leader for the cause might already be out there, and he or she might just be a better leader than you.

Mr. T not included.

But in many cases, you’ve been called on for a reason. Step Two is accepting that you are the leader, and that if shit is going to get done, especially at first, it’s probably going to be because you did it.

Prayer helps, but sweat is a safer bet.

You’ll lead, but you can’t carry the weight alone. Step Three is putting a team together. Have a dinner party (or whatever your cultural equivalent is). Invite people you know who are passionate about the issue or idea. Invite people who know more than you about the issue/idea/subject matter/market. Invite trusted friends to make sure you’re not going off the deep end. Think about inviting friends with money, have a moment of self-reflection, then invite your friends with money. As the old wizard said, Cash rules everything around us. And if people with money aren’t willing to give you theirs, they can introduce you to other people who will.

Wait, you’re worried about people stealing your idea? Step Four is not being cynical. To create something important and real and inspiring and something that lasts takes a tremendous amount of energy, and the most plentiful sources of energy I know are faith, hope, and love. Be a zealot for your cause (even if it’s a business… especially if it’s a business).

If the choice is between : (a) being slightly less successful, yet greatly more inspired/inspiring OR (b) being more cynical, guarded, and probably an emotional cavity to all around you, yet rich and “successful” and flossin’… Please, pick (a).

But it can’t just be picnics and singalongs, you stinking bunch of hippies, you. Step Five is having a well-defined mission. Just like how at some point early on in a relationship you talk about boundaries and values, your core group needs to be on the same page with vision, purpose, and mission. Does it all need to match up like a denim-on-denim suit? No. But do your conversational due diligence with your partners before signing on, spiritually or with a pen and lawyers.

They loved each other, and it showed in how hard they worked when they needed to.

Which leads nicely to Step Six, which is to work with people you like. Throw parties. Take a walk together. Cook something together. Thumb wrestle while engaged in deep, intimate eye contact… together. You’ll have too many external obstacles to waste energy on your partner being lazy, negative, just plain not smart enough, whiny, or the kind of guy who would try to screw your beautiful and vapid wife while you’re out getting another bottle from out back. (Yeah, I’m looking at you, Sterling.)

Now we’re getting down to the nittygritty. These next steps are so intertwined I’m keeping them nestled in their own paragraph. Step Seven is figuring out what the goals are. Step Eight is coming up with a plan to achieve those goals. The plan should be in a thoughtful order where 1 leads to 2 leads to 3. (Note: Step 1 is likely to do your due diligence on best practices in other places, and ways your local government can–or should–help.) Step Nine is figuring out who on your team is best equipped to take on each aspect of the plan. (This is probably a good time to talk money, if money is going to be involved).

Don’t have the people on board to see your mission through? You’ve got two choices: Bring on new talent, or go back to Step Seven and choose new goals based on the talent in the room.

Above all, believe that what you’re doing is bigger and more important than yourself. That’s Step Ten. You’ve got to feel it in your bones. There’s a lot of ways an idea gets that deep:

- You think it will make your community better. From my mixed-up religion perspective, making your community better is the equivalent of making God stronger.

- You think it will improve the quality of life for your family in substantial ways, while adding something beneficial to the community. Helping your family is, clearly, noble. That said, nothing is noble that takes without giving as much in return.

- You think it will make you so much happier that you’ll basically be a new person. Which is awesome, and a good enough reason to do anything. Given the profound affect we have on everyone we meet, the mission of making yourself a better and happier person is, in a really beautiful way, bigger than yourself.

You decide.

***

As Sivers said, the first follower is what transforms the lone nut into a leader.

I’m holding The Workshop to help some nuts along in their evolution.

Here’s the deal: Next Wednesday (11/3). My apartment. Come with your ideas. We’ll meet in small groups and talk each other through these steps. Bring snacks.

To RSVP, email me: jesse@altdaily.com.

To motivate you just a little bit, the first 5 people to RSVP get two free tickets to TEDxNASA, which takes place the next day at the Ferguson Center for the Arts in Newport News. It fits that their theme this year is What Happens Next, which is what a lot of people have been waiting for since Survive Norfolk.

By late next Wednesday night we’ll start coming up with some answers.

Too excited to get the conversation going to wait? Let her rip in the comments.