Admin Well-being Are you dreaming or preparing?

[joelr]

This was a great quote that I came across:

When dreaming, imagine success.
When preparing, imagine failure.

A lot of times when we start a new forum, we DREAM of success. We want thousands of new members, we want activity every day, we want involved members. But how often do we imagine failure, as in, what can go wrong and how do we plan around it?

 

[Nomad]

I have not read anything from John C. Maxwell but I am aware of this quote and I know how true it is. I think most of us imagine success when we dream but sadly when we plan, we still imagine success, we do not see the possibilities of failure. We do not analyze the consequences of our failures. We just aim for success without enough preparation for reaching there.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I often feel like I'm more dreaming than preparing. I think it takes both to really have a successful website eventually but you're going to need to prepare more than dream. Just hoping and wishing for things to change on your forum won't make things change, just like anything in life.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

This was a great quote that I came across:


A lot of times when we start a new forum, we DREAM of success. We want thousands of new members, we want activity every day, we want involved members. But how often do we imagine failure, as in, what can go wrong and how do we plan around it?

I mitigate failure by setting smaller goals.

Thousands and members and posts is great but it's going to take time. (Unless you buy a lot of forums )

But if you set a smaller goal, it's easier to work up to bigger ones.

And be happy to accept failure because failure is just a learning experience. I'm sure every millionaire/billionaire out there has learned a lesson or two from failure and now look at them.

 

[Shortie]

One of the biggest mistakes many make when starting a new forum is thinking that they will have hundreds of members and constant activity within a few weeks. That is the wrong mindset. I used to be guilty of that when I first started. I would set unrealistic goals and feel let down when I did not reach them.

It is always better to go in with small expectations and learn from failures.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

One of the biggest mistakes many make when starting a new forum is thinking that they will have hundreds of members and constant activity within a few weeks. That is the wrong mindset. I used to be guilty of that when I first started. I would set unrealistic goals and feel let down when I did not reach them.

I think we all were.

I also used to give my forums a year, and that's it. If they didn't grow into this big popular thing in one year, I closed them down.

My hiking brand is a business. It's a trademarked LLC business. It started as a YouTube channel, and in 4 years, it was monetized. It's turning 8 this mont,h and it's a second income. If I had just given it a year and closed it, I'd have missed out on the opportunities I'm raking in right now.

In a few weeks, I'm getting paid $200 for 3 hours to dress up like a sasquatch Santa, all because I'm known as Hiking with Shawn. LOL.

So, now I give my forums 5 years. If they're not an active community in 5 years, they probably won't be. Give it time and enjoy all the little things.

Here's a great example:

I have a Facebook group with 47,000 members. It's really busy, as you can probably imagine. When it first started, it was like going to meet my friends for a chat. I knew everyone. I remembered everyone. I came to the group knowing what I was going to post. 47K members later, and you lose touch. There are people I don't know and plenty who don't know me. It used to be a small town where everyone knew each other; now, it's a city with different social groups, and I'm mainly just administrating it for the most part.

Enjoy your small community. Enjoy being a regular member because one day all you might have to do is admin stuff and very little regular member fun.