The numbers of those running solo businesses has increased dramatically as the world has changed around us. Employment for life is a thing of the past, relying on your own resources has become the common way to succeed.
Many do so as solopreneurs, for lack of a better term.
This does not mean they are reaching for the stars, it just means they are one of the hordes of small enterprises offering services to others that used to be offered by corporations, have been outsourced, or not offered at all. The digital revolution has created many of them, filling roles and providing services that did not exist a decade ago.
The downside, and there is always a downside, is the isolation.
Human beings are social animals, we need others not just to get stuff done, but for our emotional and mental health, and yes, to create the next generation. Meeting partners in the workplace used to be where the most relationships began, but no longer.
As a solopreneur for the last 24 years after becoming a corporate refugee, I have always acutely felt the loss of the social, supportive side of corporate life. The freedom experienced as a solopreneur is terrific, but it can get very lonely.
Rotary was started in 1905 in Chicago as a means for diverse professionals to meet, exchange ideas and experiences, and give back to their communities. Meetings of like-minded people have occurred through history. From the earliest times, people gathered in common places to do business, exchange ideas, and gossip. The Greeks evolved the sophisticated processes we have scrambled and called democracy, the Romans gathered in the forum, artists gathered in Florentine workshops sparking the renaissance, Isaac Newton first exposed his ideas in coffee shops around London during the enlightenment, and the Salons of Paris spawned the impressionist movement.
We ‘network’ for business, to become known, liked and trusted, so others will refer us to their networks. It is a powerful motivation, now underpinned by digital tools, but at a deeper level, there is a range of psychological drivers that we as humans need, that are more powerful than simply getting a sales lead.
We need others to help think about the personal and commercial problems we face, to provide social and emotional support, gain insights from the experiences of others, challenge our thinking and automatic responses to situations, as a substitute for the service networks provided in corporations.
If on top of all that, we can make a dollar by providing services to others, that is great, but the outcome of successful networking is human, not just commercial.
Header Photo is of the Queens Lane Coffee House in Oxford, UK, established in 1650.
