Artemy Surin, Ukrainian globetrotter, entrepreneur, and founder of the ONE LIFE community talked to the SE MBA class. He spoke about the importance of the establishment and development of like-minded people communities.

Why community is important:

Communities secure work-life balance. I’ve seen a lot of entrepreneurs who do business for business' sake. Their families, hobbies, etc. suffer from that. Unless taken care of, such situations often result in burnouts, lack of motivation, and even self-destruction. I believe in balance;      

Connecting with interesting people who share your values enriches;      

Genuine relations are not shaped by social status, position, brands, or cars. In the genuine relationship of the right community, people feel safe, comfortable, and confident. The most important thing is that people do not need to pretend.

Artemy Surin’s advice on establishment of a community:

- Start with the online format

“When I traveled to the North Pole I started diarizing every small detail of my journey. Then I uploaded my notes to the internet not to lose them. Later on, I contributed my story about my trips and my need to travel to the bloggers’ site and it went viral. The number of my subscribers rocketed. Then I understood that many people shared my love for traveling and supported me”

-  Feel when it’s time to move from online to offline

“Take your time to involve people because online communications rarely result in strong connections. It is better to wait until you have more than a hundred people coming to the meeting. I waited and had three hundred people coming to Kyiv for the first face-to-face meeting of our community. It proved true involvement.” 

- Identify your key idea

“The idea and value provided by your community should be related. I couldn’t even imagine that people would make ONE LIFE tattoos. Have you heard of any business that creates such commitment? Our community provides the value of life’s oneness and people appreciate that.”