Whatcha thinking about? Really. I want to know!
About 2.5 years ago, we were put in a pretty tight spot as our job situation changed. But we said, screw it! When life serves you cold fish, you make fish juice! We decided to make it into an opportunity of realizing a dream that we had for some time, which manifested itself as Kumpul Coworking Space.
I think it’s way overdue to give credit to a huge inspiration to us when we were on our very early stage of figuring things out. I remember when I first signed up for Alex Hillman’s newsletter and got an automatic response as a confirmation of success. Two simple lines.
Whatcha thinking about, Dennis?
No, really. I want to know.
It completely blew my mind when Alex actually replied to my answer to that automatic email. It opened up a conversation, which became a correspondence of great insights and advice.
Skip forward 1.5 years, I had the opportunity of paying back my gratitude by making him miss his bus in favor of drinking beer at Rumah Sanur after the first Coworking Indonesia conference during CUASIA 2016.
When we had the idea of starting Kumpul, it was not so much to make “just a coworking space” as it was an idea of bringing the people together, to collaborate and to have a supporting community. It could have been anything, it didn’t have to be we who created it. But there was nothing, so we started it.
And we want this to happen all over Indonesia. We want to inspire active citizenship, support communities and build a better social structure and stronger economy in the whole country. So together with all the coworking spaces in Indonesia we are now working together as Coworking Indonesia and I am proud to see my wife taking the lead.
Getting here has been quite a journey. Mostly laughters and hi-fives. But to be honest, there have been times of tears too. A community is made of people, people with relations. And relationships are organic things that sometimes move at different rhythm and pace. And when you want something very much, you sometimes forget how hard you are working for it. Being out of sync creates friction and consumes a lot of energy.
Starting Kumpul have taught me a lot of things about being part of a community. I have realized that one of the most important things is to have time to stop and say “Whatcha thinking about? Really. I want to know.”
