As we make our way through the world, we are introduced to this concept of individualism, and about how we are meant to be ourselves, find our purpose, and make our mark. It’s a concept that can be liberating — and also a bit isolating from the rest of humanity.

How separate are we, really?

In my Intersections episode with Nilofer Merchant, an innovation expert, she put forward another way to look at individualism — the idea of a ‘connected you’.

“If you actually look at the word ‘individual’, it is the smallest measure of humankind. So it is always a connected you — you cannot actually isolate an individual separate from the group in which it belongs. By definition it is the smallest measure of the larger whole. […] Even when I’m using the word ‘individual’, I am saying — who are you a part of? To whom do you belong? Because that group is also what your shared meaning connects you to.”

Nilofer invites us to think of ourselves as a smaller piece of a much larger puzzle — unique, yet part of a larger whole. Being a quilter, she also shared another beautiful metaphor — that of a single stray thread of a quilt that catches the light, that you’re hesitant to pull out because you aren’t sure how much you’ll end up unraveling, since that thread is intimately connected to other threads in the quilt. Just like you — and I — are connected to the larger ocean of humanity.

So…what larger family, team, organization, discipline, and community are you a part of? How does this inform your identity and your larger purpose?

Warmly,
Hitendra

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