I’ll never forget how I met Louwrence.
I had just posted a new reggae-inspired song on SoundCloud called “Take Five.” Within an hour, Louwrence, an inspiring reggae guitarist in Cape Town, South Africa, commented on my song saying that he loved my vocals.
A week later, I was writing songs with an awesome guy from South Africa, and a rather unlikely new friendship was born.
When I hear people say “We live in a globally-connected world,” it usually goes in one ear, and out the other. It’s an obvious statement to anyone born to a world with the Internet.
But it’s people like Louwrence who make that fact truly come to life for me. And being a member of the X-Team community makes that fact blow my mind every day.
When minds from around the world come together to inspire one another, nothing short of incredible happens.
But when people say that we are ‘globally-connected,’ a lot of what they follow that with is how it makes our lives easier. How it makes us more productive. How it helps us save money. How it opens up our job opportunities.
All of which is quite true, of course. But the idea that you can do anything from anywhere doesn’t have to be self-centered.
“I can work from anywhere.”
“I can work in my PJs.”
“I get to live my life on my schedule.”
“I can be more productive.”
Yes, you can. Thanks to our globally-connected world, you truly can do anything.
But what’s more important is that you are now connected to people you never even knew existed.
That buried deep in Jakarta, Indonesia is an incredibly inspiring artist who has envisioned the hero inside hundreds of X-Teamers (check out his work on HEROized, as well as the graphic on this post).
Core to the idea of X-Team is that being globally-connected means that we can achieve anything by inspiring one another.
Yes, being able to create with people around the world means you get to work in your PJs, live on your own schedule, and work from anywhere.
But more importantly, it means you are part of a movement that believes collaboration has no borders. That inspiration should never be limited to who is sitting next to you. That being globally-connected means *we *are more powerful than *I *could ever be.
And what makes this globally-connected movement all the more rewarding is the unexpectedness, the surprise.
When someone from Brazil whom you’ve never met stays up 14 hours with you to finish a website because they believe that #sleepcanwait and the world deserves awesome experiences.
It still surprises me when I watch X-Team developers from Poland or Australia spontaneously jump on Google Hangouts with our VIP partners like FOX and solve challenges together. No need to wait for project managers or create bottlenecks. Just inspiration and collaboration without borders.
To think that there’s someone in Cape Town, South Africa who wants to collaborate with me on some reggae tunes is the kind of surprise that can change the world.
If you want a glimpse at the future, it is not only a world with more productive & happier people, but a world where we all create together, each time more surprising, inspiring and rewarding than the last.
This is The X.