Read on our Substack: Care City Weekly.

Leadership, Communities & Growing Together

Hello friends, partners, sponsors, and our budding community of healthcare innovators, leaders, entrepreneurs, and healthcare innovation and digital health experts and enthusiasts.

We are empty and nothing without you. 

You all have helped us achieve what we have achieved by simply reading our articles, reports, and commentaries, sharing them, subscribing to our newsletters, and participating in our online webinars and seminars. 

It means a lot to us. 

Brands are empty without communities. 

Your vision, mission, and dreams are only valuable and important if you have a community of people who believe in them.

Communities Nurture Our Visions And Dreams

Brand communities are made up of people, great and small, far and wide, more experienced than you, less experienced than you — all sorts of people from different backgrounds. They come together to make a healthy mix of a tiny human society [brand communities are little if you are starting] that helps you, encourages you, patronizes you, criticizes you, assists you, and helps spread your work as an entrepreneur, startup, or business. 

Then as you grow bigger, as your influence reaches farther, your community is also expected to grow. 

This year, I learned a lot about building communities around ideas. 

I also discovered that many brands out there need to pay more attention to community building. 

They might be spending a lot on marketing and adverts, which is okay [money must be spent]. But what matters most is how your brand sucks people into its world, this is what marketing and adverts should do, but many brands have lost the essence of it all. They are now more concerned about making sales and profits than about creating connections and building communities. Every new advert is technically targeted at manipulating people to buy what they don’t need. 

Community building is more than just adverts and shallow marketing.  

Community building sees more than just consumers, users, and customers. 

We see people. It’s about building solid connections with people. 

This year, I learned a little about building brand communities. 

I shared some of the things I am learning in a few articles; check them out below: 

Planning For Tomorrow

Next year will be far better than this year. 

Oh yes, I know and believe it will. Considering all we have been learning this year, the wonderful friends we have made, our remarkable achievements, and even our mistakes and bad decisions. 

I am excited about the many possibilities next year has to offer us. 

The new friends we will make as a brand, the new things we will build together as a community, and the places our voices will reach as a brand. 

Entrepreneurship Is A Journey Of Faith

Yes, there is the part of science and technology, the aspect of methods, techniques, and intellect. There is also the role of faith, The belief in what you are doing, which can never be neglected, taken for granted, or replaced. 

When we are tired and exhausted, we draw strength from the faith we have in the future of what we are building. 

Faith is why we keep going strong, are disciplined, keep learning and getting better, and are dedicated and consistent. 

It’s easy to give up in the world of entrepreneurship. There’s competition here and there; the economy isn’t smiling on anyone; government policies and regulations are hitting hard from right, left, and center; you also have personal problems seeking your attention. 

Herein lies why many shy away from taking the entrepreneurial path; they’d better stay where they are — the comfort zone. There’s too much risk involved and so much to lose. 

Yes, so much to lose. And that’s why we are not interested in taking paths where there’s nothing to lose. 

In life, people who dare to venture into the darkness and storms are those who find themselves. 

Look around you. Greatness is not born in the comfort zone. It’s born outside, in the heat, the snow. That’s where you discover your strengths, hidden abilities, and superpowers. 

As we all prepare for next year, I urge you to dare believe in your dreams. Never you doubt what you have growing in your heart. 

Listen to experts and older folks in your field; honestly, there’s much to learn from them. 

I don’t joke with the advice of people who are greater, better, and more experienced. But I know when to swallow advice whole and when to step back a little and kindly drop some advice that tends to dry you of motivation. 

We had a lot of plans for 2022, we were able to get some done, and many remained untouched. More importantly, we are still in the game, haven’t given up, and will never give up. 

Discovering Our Why

Finally, before I let you go for the year, I would really love it if you could watch this old Ted Talk by Simon Sinek, one of the most prominent voices in the innovation & leadership ecosystem. 

He talked about the ‘What,’ ‘How,’ and ‘Why’ of doing business. 

That short talk touched me deeply. And I am going to write a whole essay on it. 

We need to sit down and ask ourselves this important question: why are we doing what we do? 

 “What’s your why?”

If you can answer that question, you have made 90% progress in whatever you do. 

Most of us do the things we do for shallow reasons. Not deep enough. Not solid enough. Just there — mehh; while the few of us who have found our ‘why’ are the ones who will give our all to our dreams and, in turn, attract people who will believe in what we are doing, joining us in the dream-building race.

The Golden Circle Rule

Let’s wrap it up with this rule developed by Simon Sinek. 

Simon studied great individuals and companies that achieved earth-shaking, ground-moving, mind-boggling achievements and discovered a hidden principle at play. 

There was a particular pattern great people and companies followed to achieve greatness. They always started with their WHY. 

I have spent a large part of this article discussing the importance of discovering ‘WHY,’ because it’s the most crucial component in destiny’s journey. 

In Simon’s Ted Talk, he gave a short but detailed lecture on the Golden Circle Rule, citing Apple, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and The Wright Brothers as examples. 

I wish to discuss this principle/rule in more detail with you, but time has already gone by, and I wanted this article to be shorter. Next time, we will take a deeper look at it.

We have come to the end of this piece and the year. 

In a few hours, we will be in 2023. 

What are your plans? 

For us here, we will keep building. We will keep creating relevant partnerships, building our community, and giving our best. 

And above all, we will keep mastering and understanding our WHY! 

Happy new year in advance. 

Your friend in the school of leadership, innovation, and learning. 

Ayinla Daniel. 

Founder and Editor of Care City. 

Hey, have you read the last edition of Care City Weekly for 2022? If you haven’t what are you waiting for? Head over and read it here.