I recently announced my plans for a 12-month Founders Live world tour. This post describes another lesson from my journey and what I have initially learned from taking the biggest risk of my life to date. Follow along here on this blog and here.

When I announced my 2019 tour the outpouring of thoughts, encouragement, and support was overwhelming and humbling. It amazed me how much people are paying attention to me and Founders Live, and how they were extending their thoughts and words of encouragement to me.

I was on a call today with one of these people – someone who I didn’t know but had attended an event in Austin, TX and then cold reached out to me in an email.

During the conversation, something clicked as I was talking. A new lesson – if you are open to being open – to new things and new people – they will walk into your life unexpected but with perfect timing to answer a request or a need you have at the time.

I described to this person how amazing it was that as Founders Live grows, we are seeing a larger and larger community forming around the world. And I was struck with how lots of these people have reached out to me and extended their support, offering a roof over my head or a connection to someone they know when I enter a new city.

“We’ve created this community and it’s amazing how people are opening doors to me all over the place”, I said to him. “It’s really cool to see it in action. To see people opening doors to strangers in efforts to help.”

Then I said “This is not about me. I didn’t build Founders Live just for myself. This is available and open to ALL Founders Live members. Anyone should be able to post about their travels or needs and others in our community can be there for assistance and support if needed. I know it’s happening already.”

That’s the truth.

You should be able to tap into the Founders Live community and connect with other like-minded people, possibly in other countries and other corners of the world. You should be able to trust them, or at least know they pass one or two filters even before you discovered them.

A quality check for me (as the founder) is if this continues and actually becomes more prevalent as we grow in many more cities and many more people around the world. That’s when we know we’ve created something very special.

The lesson here is: Be Open To Being More Open. It’s an offshoot of Open The Door Core Value and maybe the distant cousin of it. It’s the reciprocal side of that core value, where as you are more open to new opportunities, new people, new experiences, the more often you will see others Opening The Door to you. You see, the Core Value Open The Door only works when there are 2 people: one person who is opening the door and the other person who is open to the door being opened for them.

Be Open. More than you would otherwise. It’s how we grow as humans. And I am learning it’s how you survive when you are on the road!