It’s Only Weird When You’re Alone
There is a video that's been around for awhile called The First Follower. Feel free to watch it (~3 minutes), or just skip to my commentary.
A man at a music festival starts dancing alone. For awhile, he’s by himself while others watch from a distance. Then one person joins him, then another, then a few more. Eventually most of the people in the vicinity have joined him. The video uses 'dancing guy' as a commentary on how movements start.
The main point is that the first follower matters as much as the leader. And that's true. But it’s only one of the leadership lessons here.
1. The first follower doesn’t just join the leader, they make leadership visible. The first follower changes the story. Before them, it’s a lone guy dancing. The first follower validates the leader, but more importantly, they translate the movement into something others can copy. They make it easier and safer to do so. This isn’t passive support; it’s visible, active followership.
2. It’s not just the first follower who is important. All early followers create momentum. The second, third, and fourth matter just as much. Each person who joins reduces the risk, increases legitimacy, and builds momentum. All movements start with one brave person, but they gain momentum and scale because enough people join early and visibly.
3. At some point, the risk flips. In the beginning, joining is risky. You might stand out or look foolish. But as more people join, it starts to feel normal. It then becomes expected. And eventually, you become the outlier if you don’t join.
You can almost see the shift happen in real time:
at first it’s courage-driven
then curiosity-driven
and eventually belonging-driven
This is how change happens, not just through ideas, but through a shift in what feels safe and possible.
4. Another important piece of this puzzle is that the initial leader’s conviction makes followership possible. This is the part I don’t hear talked about as much. Before there is a first follower, there is someone who is fully committed.
The dancing guy wasn’t tentative. He wasn't scanning the crowd for approval. He was all in. And that matters more than ideas. People follow energy, certainty, and something that feels real. If he had been hesitant, it's likely no one else would have joined him.
5. Leadership isn’t a person, it’s a pattern of behaviour between people. What this video shows, more than anything, is that leadership is co-created. The leader starts it. The followers validate it, and reinforce the leader. It turns uncertainty into something shared. That’s where the energy builds, and where it starts to take hold.
If you care about creating change, there are three roles to pay attention to.
i) If you’re the one dancing alone, your job is to be visible, committed, and willing to go first, with conviction, even when no one joins you right away.
ii) Sometimes, your role is to be the first, second, or third follower. To step in early, support someone else's leadership and make it visible and easy to follow.
iii) Without the middle group, the people who run down the hill to join in, movements stall before they ever gain momentum. They may not be first, but they’re often the reason something actually takes hold.
Maybe the difference between “weird” and “movement” is just a few ordinary people deciding, one by one, to visibly join something before it feels fully safe or fully popular.