I know someone who has spent the past decade jumping from big brand community to big brand community.
She joins, stays for 12 to 18 months, and then quits complaining she didn’t get the support she needed to succeed.
I suspect having so many big brand communities on her resume is actually a help rather than a hindrance. Yet I doubt she can point back to any contribution she’s made over the past decade and say ‘yup, I built that’.
Here’s the deal, no one building communities today has everything they need.
No one has all the resources, staff, respect they need (or want). No one has the obvious career path from community to where they want to be.
At some point, you need to stop hopping to a new lilypad each year at the first sign of difficulty and start building something that lasts.
You need to win people over. Earn respect and credibility. Increase understanding and awareness of community. And, most importantly, deliver results that get you to where you want to be.
Not as easy as quitting in disgust, but what will you be most proud of in five years’ time?