The Power of Being a Follower

Yeah, I’m in full on book pimping mode and it feels a bit yucky. The thing is, my book comes from so many years of doing the exact opposite of what it takes to sell a book…or so I thought.

So here’s the epiphany, shared with you like a healthy bacteria or a slightly helpful communicable disease. It may just be the one thing we can remember that replaces so much in the leadership, social media, networking, authenticity, finding your inner voice, living your passions and perhaps even the embracing your intuition worlds.

Remember the cure-all, DMSO? Yeah, like that.

Last week, I was a fly on the wall at a gathering of some of the most influential folks on the lumpy globe. There were a few other flies but mostly there were glorious stars–stars only in their own mama’s eyes and stars that shone so bright that there was nothing one could do but admire. I’m glad that I knew my role as a fly or I might have missed the revelation.

Instead of watching the galactic show of presentations, I watched the audience, the stargazers. And instead of doing the book pimping that I know I was there to do, I watched how others did their networking–sometimes pathetically and often masterfully. In the midst of my intense feelings that I needed to get my book in the right hands, liked with the most clicks, seen by the flashiest eyeballs, touted by the biggest mouths, the shiniest stars…I stopped. I STFU. I breathed through my nose.

And then I saw it. It wasn’t about authenticity. It wasn’t about cosmic attraction. It wasn’t about everyone needing to know my stories, my ideas, my book. It wasn’t about leading the charge at all. It was simply about engaging one thing that we all have when we’re two years old. And then, it was about following it…everywhere.

Curiosity
Curiosity
Curiosity
Look for it. Engage it. Follow it.

If You Don’t Ask Yourself…
How can I get this celebrity to know me, promote me, connect me. How can I shove as much of my shit into their brain as possible before another shinier star twinkles seductively?

And If You Do Ask Yourself…
What about this person am I curious about? Why do they succeed? In what ways have they failed? What can I copy? Why do I feel the way I feel about…? Why does this attract me? Why do I believe this? Where did this come from?

…It will work. It won’t feel so yucky.

Then go deeper. Look for it. Engage it. Follow it.
Curiosity, curiosity, curiosity.