From the decision to create man, to the American Constitutional Convention, to two geniuses in a garage dreaming up a world-class tech company, to eleven men in a soccer team, to a startup team for a new church plant, to a group of ants carrying some food crumbs home, to the cabin crew on a Southwest Airplane, we have always done better in groups. The bulk of our success as humans has always come when we work together. And even when it looks like success was achieved alone, like at the Finish line of a 100meter race, somewhere in the stands a coach and a parent, or two, can’t stop crying because all the handwork has finally paid off. Sometimes we don’t have to be locked up in the same garage to come up with collective awesomeness. The mere fact you can read this blog is a supreme example of what I call REMOTE COLLABORATION. The other type of collaboration is PROXIMAL COLLABORATION. The difference being the necessity of propinquity.
The delivery of this blog to you took the effort of many great minds and hands. A group of nerds designed my Mac Book Pro, another group developed Evernote while another group works tirelessly on the Wordpress platform. A group developed the RSS Feed system that enables the group-designed Mailchimp to pick up and deliver my new blogposts to you efficiently. And if you’re reading this on a phone or tablet, you’re using a group-developed device. It’s all about groups. Social Media platforms thrive because there is an itch within us that only collegiality can scratch.
Not to sound religious or the like, but if we consider that a being as supreme as God works in a group of three--Father, Son, Holy Spirit—or that Jesus’ first assignment was to gather together a group, why, then, do we think we are best as silos? The whole concept of marriage was based on the premise that man should not be alone.
Growing up, I was taught that life is not a sprint, but a marathon. In this teaching I was subconsciously taught to do it alone while I paced myself. What if I was taught that life is a team sport, and that I need to play my part for the success of the group? Yes, we all have individual parts to play, but our parts are fractions of the meal we serve the world.
So DEATH to DO IT YOURSELF and LIVE to DO IT TOGETHER!
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