What Chickens, Boats and Coworking Have Taught Me About Life
Yes, that inevitable day has arrived — it is time for me to move on from Grind and focus on chickens, boats and coworking consulting. How can those concepts possibly be related in any intelligent way, you ask? Well, for me, they are all harbingers of change. Each of them speaks to what drives me as an entrepreneur, and highlight what I’ve decided to focus on in the next phase of my career.
Let’s start with chickens. About seven years ago I helped start a CSA (community supported agriculture) farm at Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island. That CSA has now grown to over 120 families, who are supporting the effort to grow organic food for our local community. The success of the CSA depends on the support of the community, as without one, the other would fall apart. As the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors, when it comes to Sylvester Manor (and all of our chickens, lambs, cows, and pigs), I am focused on creating something that benefits the greater good, and helping create something that is bigger than the sum of its parts.
Sylvester Manor @ Shelter Island
Now for boats. I love to sail — it’s something I have spent the better part of my life doing for fun. It meant a lot to me when I was asked to leverage this expertise and join the Board of the Hudson River Community Sailing (HRCS) in December. HRCS runs an after-school program for inner-city kids where we help them with science, math, and college prep, while also teaching kids achievement through boat-building and competitive sailing. The program is strong because of the group of sailing enthusiasts, like me, who can teach the kids about sailing and life, while also teaching important academic and career-readiness skills. It’s not because of my time individually, or for that matter, the time of any one Board Member or teacher. It’s the change that we are together working to create for the program participants.
Which then brings us to coworking. Much like the CSA and HRCS, the value of coworking is very much dependent on the contribution of individuals, who together create a mutual platform for success.
The coworking movement is exploding across the country, where entrepreneurs and independent workers share office space and resources. As a Co-Founder of Grind, I set out to build something much more meaningful than a physical shared space. When I transitioned from a practicing real estate lawyer to an entrepreneur, I found my workplace options (home, work, coffee shop), to be uninspiring — not to mention unproductive. I wanted to be in a place where I could connect to other motivated, entrepreneurs, tap into the expertise that I needed, and contribute what I could by way of knowledge and contacts. I wanted a community. At the time, I couldn’t find one. So I came together with some like-minded partners, and Grind was born.
Over the last six years, I have worked with a brilliant collective of minds to advance the concept of what the future of work should be. Especially for entrepreneurs, a community can be that much needed catalyst for growth. I saw this day in and day out at Grind, as connections were made and new business relationships were formed. And along the way, I studied the power of community and the role it plays in encouraging innovation. This is not something that is limited to start-ups or small to mid-size businesses. Companies of all sizes need to embrace the power of collaboration and the connection to business strategy.
This is a topic I started speaking about more broadly over the last few years — from the stages of SXSW and WorkTech to delivering corporate professional development content at Ernst and Young and Verizon. In addition to building Grind, I have been steadily building my own expertise around what work can and should be when you introduce community-building strategies to the corporate workforce. For example, this coming October, I’ll be hosting a conference on successfully designing the collaborative workspace, HR and Beyond, sponsored by the global organization, The Conference Board.
As I look to my next chapter, I look towards bringing the concept of community as a driver of innovation beyond the four walls of Grind. I look forward to consulting to organizations big and small on devising workplace strategies that foster innovation. While I will no longer be involved in the day to day of Grind, you can of course expect to see me around the place — every entrepreneur needs a work-home and there’s no better one out there then Grind. .
So yes, chickens, boats and coworking. I told you they all were related.
I wish the Grind Team nothing but success. You can find me at benjamin.dyett@gmail.com and www.openwork.agency/about/
