How to build a community of book readers

How to build a local community of book readers

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Book lovers have big plans. Plans to read more books, meet other book lovers, build a community of local book lovers or finish that book reading challenge that we have been thinking about for the past few years. We often start, but then life gets in the way and we stop before we get going. I can relate. I have been there, done that. Fortunately, every problem has a solution. Let me explain.

The problem

How many projects have you started and abandoned? How many courses or book reading challenges have you subscribed to and never finished? Most people have a lot of these on their list. If you are a normal human being, you probably have a few of these as well. I know I do. And it’s really easy to add more to the list, unless you come up with a good plan. Here is how I discovered my solution.

The observation

For the past 10 months I have been working on boocshare.com, a platform that enables people to share their paper books with friends and family to save money, read more and build offline relationships with other book lovers. I have noticed that many people get excited about the idea. They register, add a few books, invite some friends and start building their community. But then, as I said earlier, life gets in the way. The group founder falls off the rader and growth stalls. Without the leader, the community does not get off the ground. Just like that, one more idea appears on someone’s list of unfinished projects.
Observing how some reading communities succeed on boocshare.com has taught me one important lesson: to avoid the superhero syndrome at all cost. If you are not sure what that is, let me explain. The superhero syndrome is when you want to do it all. You want to discover, build, grow and monitor each and every step of a project. However, this does not usually work. Even the greatest minds in the world worked with partners. Steve Jobs had Steve Wozniak. Warren Buffet had Charlie Munger. Bill Gates had Paul Allen. Even Jesus had his 12 desciples to help him spread the word.
As John Wooden said, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, you need a team.”
The success of some communities on boocshare.com led me to the conclusion that community building is not a one-man task. The more people are involved the better the chances of success. Being a superhero is an express road to burn out and failed project.  That is why on boocshare.com we make it easy to give all members of a community administrator or moderator rights so that they can all help to make things happen faster.

The road to a successful community of book lovers

So one good way to get more done in 2018 and beyond is to stop trying to be a superhero and work with other people to get the ball rolling and keep it moving. Having friends, family or other accountability partners on your side can help to keep you on your toes and getting more done.
According to the principles of influence, as defined by Robert B. Caldini in his book “Influence: Science and Practice”, a mere public commitment can motivate you to follow one course until successful (meaning FOCUS, as defined by Robert Kiyosaki). If a simple public commitment helps, just imagine how much more you can gain from actually working with other people.
So next time you want to improve your chances of success and avoid adding one more item to your list of unfinished projects, consider getting more people involved or getting a partner to complement your skills. Build your tribe  of readers now.

Before you go back to your book

Check out boocshare.com if you love reading or are looking for ways to meet other other book lovers. Also join the Read Around The World Challenge to extend your reading horizons and discover new books and authors in 20018 and beyond.
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