First Follower: Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy
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Published 2010-02-11
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If you've learned a lot about leadership and making a movement, then let's watch a movement happen, start to finish, in under 3 minutes, and dissect some lessons:
A leader needs the guts to stand alone and look ridiculous. But what he's doing is so simple, it's almost instructional. This is key. You must be easy to follow!
Now comes the first follower with a crucial role: he publicly shows everyone how to follow. Notice the leader embraces him as an equal, so it's not about the leader anymore - it's about them, plural. Notice he's calling to his friends to join in. It takes guts to be a first follower! You stand out and brave ridicule, yourself. Being a first follower is an under-appreciated form of leadership. The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader. If the leader is the flint, the first follower is the spark that makes the fire.
The 2nd follower is a turning point: it's proof the first has done well. Now it's not a lone nut, and it's not two nuts. Three is a crowd and a crowd is news.
A movement must be public. Make sure outsiders see more than just the leader. Everyone needs to see the followers, because new followers emulate followers - not the leader.
Now here come 2 more, then 3 more. Now we've got momentum. This is the tipping point! Now we've got a movement!
As more people jump in, it's no longer risky. If they were on the fence before, there's no reason not to join now. They won't be ridiculed, they won't stand out, and they will be part of the in-crowd, if they hurry. Over the next minute you'll see the rest who prefer to be part of the crowd, because eventually they'd be ridiculed for not joining.
And ladies and gentlemen that is how a movement is made! Let's recap what we learned:
If you are a version of the shirtless dancing guy, all alone, remember the importance of nurturing your first few followers as equals, making everything clearly about the movement, not you.
Be public. Be easy to follow!
But the biggest lesson here - did you catch it?
Leadership is over-glorified.
Yes it started with the shirtless guy, and he'll get all the credit, but you saw what really happened:
It was the first follower that transformed a lone nut into a leader.
There is no movement without the first follower.
We're told we all need to be leaders, but that would be really ineffective.
The best way to make a movement, if you really care, is to courageously follow and show others how to follow.
When you find a lone nut doing something great, have the guts to be the first person to stand up and join in.
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Original video at • Sasquatch music festival 2009 - Guy s...
All Comments (21)
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The narration for this video did the trick haha
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"When you find a lone nut doing something great, have the guts to be the first person to stand up and join in." Brilliant.
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"It was the first follower that transformed a lone nut into a leader."
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8 years later I still find this video incredibly inspiring. Notice how the momentum never slow down, in fact it gets bigger and bigger.
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This is a great video.
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Being a follower is in fact the first step of being a leader
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crazy shirtless dancing guy is my religion
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"When you find James Corbett doing something great, have the guts to be the first person to stand up and join in." ;)
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Probably one of the most important videos I have ever seen in my life.
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@slovek I am the one that did the TED talk. This is my original video I created before doing it on stage at TED.
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This genre-less content is what we need more of on youtube. You've got an eye for noteworthy events that fly under the radar. Thanks for narrating and posting this, I like the way you think
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I've used this every year with my students since 2014. Yes, it still rings true and gives all of us a window into the power that we have to change the world for the better, one interaction at a time. We are powerful creators, act accordingly. Thanks Derek!
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"How did he do that?!" Haha, he was just doin what he do.
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The guy that joined in is a good friend of mine his graduation party was last night. He's a humble, awesome dude.
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Another example of this effect:
Group of friends being together. Ideas are thrown around on what to do next. Nothing gets decided. But the moment one guy follows another's idea everybody will.
I think most can relate to this. -
"I am not a good dancer"
"This half gram says you are..." -
The psychology beyond this narration is seriously brilliant. I watched this many years and it is such an important lesson in human behaviour. It's a fun video, sure, but it explains how our society thinks about many situations. Well done!
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THIS IS FUCKING GREAT! Gave me goosebumps! WE THE PEOPLE BETTeR GeT GOING!
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One of the best videos I've seen in my life. On-point narration. So succinct, so powerful. THANK YOU.
