I was driving to meet my business partner, Nick Cheshire, last week.
It was the morning after the night before when Storm Chandra caused flooding chaos across the UK.
My neck of the woods on the south coast was badly affected; it took my wife three hours to do a 25-minute school run.
En route to Sevenoaks to see Nick, I drove past and through a series of BIG puddles.
Google Maps was navigating me.
About 45 minutes into the journey, I saw Road Ahead Closed signs – but Google said keep calm and carry on, so I did.
But, and here’s the main point of this week’s blog – it wasn’t so much the insistence of the Google Machine that kept me driving past road closure signs, it was the three cars in front of me doing the same thing.
I thought, ‘Well, they must know something I don’t about this closure, that I don’t.’
And if we do hit a flooded section, we’ve got strength in numbers, and we can turn around together, helping each other if needed.
Also, it was much less frightening than driving alone on the road, with no cars in front or behind, not knowing why it was closed.
I wondered why I felt much calmer than I normally would (I REALLY hate floods; it’s always been almost a phobia of mine since early childhood).
Then it dawned on me. The reason things like the Ethical Agent Network, community groups, and associations work so well is that, despite all the AI and tech in the world, we still find comfort, support, and confidence from people who are in similar boats (or, in my case, cars).
I felt safer because I was with others.
Good agency networks and WhatsApp groups help agency owners weather choppy times, move forward with confidence, and overcome roadblocks along the way.
Here’s a definition of community: It means a group of people who share something in common and feel connected because of it.
I turned before any road closure became a reality.
I got to the meeting safely and returned home without a hitch three hours later.
But the lesson of this will stay with me for a long time – it was borderline profound.
We really do need each other, especially in uncertain periods.
Thanks for reading,
Jerry
