Digital Jamaica turns five this year but it almost never was.
If I had followed my mind, I would have quit years ago, in fact, Digital Jamaica was launched under duress by people who bought into the vision long before I was even able to articulate it … Thanks Lee/Damion.
The truth is I am not a woman of many convictions. In fact, this is the first time I have ever tried so hard at something and dedicated so much time to actualizing it.
Building a brand on or offline is hard, and even now, after five years and several noteworthy achievements, I’m still amazed at how much of an impact Digital Jamaica has had. It’s incredible how far this one little idea has traveled.
It has already been such an interesting journey with soaring highs and crushing lows, and although there are still some ways to go, I think there’s benefit in sharing some of what I’ve learned so far.
Why not you?
Digital Jamaica started because there was a dearth of relevant information about how the average Jamaicans can use the online space to create opportunities.
Sure, there were persons already online successfully doing their thing but they weren’t as visible, and those who were, weren’t accessible (or relatable if we’re keeping it all the way 100).
So after endless complaining about the problem and hoping someone else would provide the solution, I eventually decided to do it myself because WHY NOT ME?
So I went for it, starting with the 1st cohort of people to watch. I was surprised when the people I reached out to agreed to participate, but they did, and it was the start of something spectacular.
The moral of the story is don’t allow fear and doubt to stop you from doing THAT thing, whatever it is.
You are way more capable than you know.
Become intentional
Ask yourself, why am I doing this thing? Especially if the thing requires a sustained investment of time and effort before you achieve your goals. It is easy to lose sight of your WHY when tiredness and frustration set in.
Sometimes the passion that drove you will dim, fade or even die. What do you do then? You have two choices, quit or become intentional.
There’s a meme where a guy is digging a tunnel trying towards his goals, and just as he is about to break through, he gives up. The message is not to give up, but sometimes the bitterness of battle sours the victory; that’s what you call a pyrrhic victory.
A pyrrhic victory is when the win is at too great a cost to have been worthwhile. In this case, a win is NOT a win. And so, If pushing forward means sacrificing your mental health or relationships or anything else that is sacred to you, then quitting is a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
The other option is to become intentional, meaning doing the work to evaluate where you are in relation to where you want to be and getting back in alignment with the end goal.
Passion is NOT ENOUGH
The kind of clarity needed to become intentional is not borne out of passion but rather out of strategy and goal setting because you are going to quickly find that passion is not sustainable (or consistent).
You can’t passion something into being, and sometimes that passion can be limiting as you can become myopic to opportunities to pivot, reformulate or change the goal altogether.
The long and short of it is, If your passion is not INTENTIONAL, which means setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant goals with clear deadlines, then it’s just wishful thinking.
Don’t get me wrong, passion can take you a long way, but you will need a well thought-out strategy that will help you channel that passion into a clear path to success.
Trust the process
Once you have articulated a plan, you need to stick to it. In other words, trust the process.
From the outset, you should work on formulating a recipe for your own success, and it should be based solely on the strength of your commitment to the goal(s) you have set.
How much money, time, energy, effort, and care do you need to invest to achieve this goal? (you have to be honest with yourself). The hallmark of a trustworthy process is that it is realistic, intentional, flexible, and reasonable.
Once you are clear about the level of investment you are willing to make you can then plan accordingly.
Remember, your process is developed and perfected over time and is unique to you, so while you can borrow from others, you mustn’t compare because sometimes what you see is the fruits of many years of labor, not where they are starting from.
Create your own path, set reasonable goals and stick to it.
Community matters
My name has been mentioned in spaces I have never dreamed I would ever be in, thanks to the Digital Jamaica community.
From the outset, the strategy for growing the Digital Jamaica platform was essential to focus on building community – an environment where mutually beneficial and reciprocal value exchanges occur.
I intentionally crafted messages and developed content and brand programs that would attract the intended audience, then used that growing audience to attract more and more people to the brand.
In other words making community the central focus, cultivating goodwill towards the brand and leveraging those relationships to optimize the growth of the brand.
And not just growth for Digital Jamaica but for community members, who have benefited immensely from the content we produce and the different programs and collaborations. This strategy worked for one primary reason, RECIPROCITY, which is commensurate rewards for commensurate value.
I hope you find value in these lessons and that it will make your journey a little less stressful 🙂
