Yesterday, I was telling my cousin about this TED talk that I had seen a few years back on “How to start a movement”. If you haven’t seen it, here’s the video. I recommend you check it out (3 mins long) before you continue reading it:

Derek Sivers — How to start a movement

Here’s the full transcript (with my commentary):

Ladies and gentlemen, at TED we talk a lot about leadership and how to make a movement. So let’s watch a movement happen, start to finish, in under three minutes and dissect some lessons from it.

First, of course you know, a leader needs the guts to stand out and be ridiculed. What he’s doing is so easy to follow.

I realised, at first anyone who’ll hear about Musiconomi they’ll think — “These guys are nuts!”, “They’ll be laughed at”, “This ain’t gonna happen” etc. A Lot of people will doubt how they’ll achieve a world where artists and musicians are benefited directly in the music economy? How will they compete against these giants like iTunes, Google Play etc? But the team at Musiconomi will continue dancing, trying to build — A Global Music Economy That Works for Everyone!

Here’s his first follower with a crucial role; he’s going to show everyone else how to follow. Now, notice that the leader embraces him as an equal. Now it’s not about the leader anymore; it’s about them, plural.

I found out about this project through cofound.it. I had the same set of doubts and hesitation. I thought I’ll go with the wait and watch policy and see what happens. But as I talked with the team, got to know how the MCI team got together, what problems musicians face, and various solutions they have built into the project I was sold! I jumped in! What amazed me is that these guys embraced me as their equal and made me their community moderator! Just like that first lone nut did to his first follower! Made him his equal.

Now, there he is calling to his friends. Now, if you notice that the first follower is actually an underestimated form of leadership in itself. It takes guts to stand out like that. The first follower is what transforms a lone nut into a leader. And here comes a second follower. Now it’s not a lone nut, it’s not two nuts — three is a crowd, and a crowd is news. So a movement must be public. It’s important to show not just the leader, but the followers, because you find that new followers emulate the followers, not the leader.

I was so impressed with their vision, their honesty to the project that I felt — Hey, I should help these guys reach out! And I started to moderate, answer questions on their slack when the team was busy preparing for their upcoming crowdsale, shared few ideas with them, I even created a poster to help spread the word!

Now, here come two more people, and immediately after, three more people. Now we’ve got momentum. This is the tipping point. Now we’ve got a movement. So, notice that, as more people join in, it’s less risky. So those that were sitting on the fence before now have no reason not to. They won’t stand out, they won’t be ridiculed, but they will be part of the in-crowd if they hurry.

So, over the next minute, you’ll see all of those that prefer to stick with the crowd because eventually they would be ridiculed for not joining in. And that’s how you make a movement.

Once the pre-sale starts on 29th Aug 5 PM CEST, some of you maybe will stay on the fence, waiting to see how many people will send their ethers and then be evaluating if you should or shouldn’t. As more people donate, it becomes less risky to get in. But soon as you’ll see it reaching the hard cap, you’ll jump in! It’ll be like this is a no brainer! And you’ll be part of a movement!

But let’s recap some lessons from this. So first, if you are the type, like the shirtless dancing guy that is standing alone, remember the importance of nurturing your first few followers as equals so it’s clearly about the movement, not you.

In our case, Musiconomi is that crazy shirtless dancing guy, standing alone. And calling everyone to join him in this crazy movement to change the Music Industry!

Okay, but we might have missed the real lesson here. The biggest lesson, if you noticed — did you catch it? — is that leadership is over-glorified. Yes, it was the shirtless guy who was first, and he’ll get all the credit, but it was really the first follower that transformed the lone nut into a leader. So, as we’re told that we should all be leaders, that would be really ineffective.

That in all this building the project, crowdfunding, changing the music industry etc the core part is you — the participant, the evangelists, the listeners and the musicians who are on the fence, the sceptical just waiting for it to become less risky to join this movement!

If you really care about starting a movement, have the courage to follow and show others how to follow. And when you find a lone nut doing something great, have the guts to be the first one to stand up and join in. And what a perfect place to do that, at TED.

Thanks.

And I would like you, the reader to come join us in our movement, take a leap of faith to stand up against the big giants, the unnecessary intermediaries who take away all the profits which should go to the hardworking musicians. If you still have an iota of doubt whether this will help the musicians, listen to what Don from The Motorleague & Quake Matthews has to say about what makes them excited about Musiconomi!

This is the moment for you to join us, not as a follower but as an equal partner in changing this broken music industry! Join us in the pre-sale that starts from 29th Aug 2017 5 PM CEST. Public sale starts 31st Aug 5 PM CEST. Tell everyone you know about this project, share this article, talk about it your friends.

Have the courage to follow and show others how to follow. And when you find a lone nut doing something great, have the guts to be the first one to stand up and join in.

Join the Musiconomi movement!

Note: This is a community post by firesofmay