We often undermine our own success, sometimes unknowingly. While we aspire for success and work hard, our choices and attitudes can lead us to failure. Read below about Chapters 3 and 4 of the book, 13 Ways to Kill Your Community.
Chapter 3—Don’t Engage Youth
Every community wonders how to keep youth from leaving. That shouldn’t be your goal. The nature of youth is to explore and try new things. You should want them to experience new worlds, new cultures and new ideas. Success is not about keeping them. Success is dependent on giving them a reason to come home after, and to bring those outside ideas and experiences with them. We rarely do that. We don’t give them a reason to come home after they have explored. Often we even go a step further by chasing them away so they won’t come back. We talk negatively about our community and give them the impression that if they have ambitions and aptitude they must leave to find success. Young folks, not just kids but anyone under 40, are looking for a place to build a life and build a future, and if they don’t get the sense from you that your community has a future, they will go elsewhere and the future of your community will leave with them.
Chapter 4— Deceive Yourself
Every community lacks something. Whether it is a small town that lacks daycare services or a hardware store, or it is a large city that lacks community spirit or has traffic issues, every community has needs. Every community has values too, that are core to what its future is going to be about. Assessing needs and values gives you the foundation on how to improve your community and ensure its success. So, don’t do that. Every community has competitive advantages over other communities that would make people want to move to or live there. Every other community has disadvantages that deter people from locating there, as well. Accomplishing failure means you need to focus on keeping the disadvantages while ignoring the competitive advantages.
This article was published in the Venango Chamber’s March 2024 VenangoWorks! Newsletter.