I Forgot Someone's Birthday...

Read Time: 4 Minutes

I was on my way to pick up my kids when the text came in.

You forgot to sign Leah’s birthday card.

Uh-oh.

Leah is a member of my team. She’s been with me for over a year, she’s absolutely fantastic, and she really, genuinely cares about helping international students.

And I forgot her birthday.

Even though I literally get an email notification 48 hours before someone on my team’s birthday.

But…

I got bailed out.

Another member of the team noticed that I hadn’t signed the card, and felt compelled to text me about it.

Why?

She didn’t have to- it’s certainly not in her job description.

And besides, couldn’t it be considered weird to text your boss telling him to sign a birthday card?

Not for us it’s not.

Because we have a culture of care on my team.

I’ve spent the last several years cultivating a team culture where every single person knows…

I care about them, and I look out for them.

So they, in turn, started caring for me and looking out for me too.

Not only that, but they know that signing a birthday card is something I would WANT to do.

They know that I would feel genuinely bad about not getting my little note in.

They know that I’m invested in each and every one of them as people, first and foremost.

(And I don’t just do generic notes… as you probably could have guessed from being a reader of this newsletter.)

This is what true teamwork looks like.

It’s people looking out for each other.

It’s people knowing each other’s intentions.

So many people these days make up stories in their own mind.

It would have been very easy for the person who noticed that I hadn’t signed the card to think ‘Josh is too busy for us now’ or ‘Josh must not like Leah’ or any one of a thousand scenarios where I’m disconnected and distant from them.

But that’s not what happened.

This person knew me well enough to instead think ‘Oh no, Josh must have forgotten, I know he’d want to send his birthday wishes. Let me remind him.’

This is a team, a community.

And that’s what I’m building over The American Dream Society as well.

I’ve spent days, weeks, and months assembling resources and tutorials and layers of support for international students.

It’s really cool. International students can go in there and view dozens of guidance updates, as well as 3+ hours of content on getting a student visa, working in the U.S., post-graduation planning, etc.

(Did I mention that it’s also 100% free to join?)

But the community aspect isn’t where I want it to be yet.

Yet.

Because while I’ve been in this game for a long time, and I have a lot of insights to share, I’ve also seen firsthand over and over again just how amazing international students are at supporting each other.

And teaching me, too. It’s not uncommon for me to get a link to an article from one of my students with the latest updates, or an editorial on a certain matter that relates to international students with an interesting perspective.

So while I’ll continue to post updates, and reminders of key dates, and add video tutorials based on the questions I get the most often…

What I would like to see more of are the community members sharing resources with each other directly, and sharing goals, and sharing articles, and sharing successes so that we can celebrate together.

Call it a supportive culture, or a pooling of resources, or whatever else you want.

I call it a community.

You can join for free if you’re not in yet.

And if you are in, I’d love to hear from you.

DM me if there’s something I can do better to drive engagement.

Or, and this is key, FEEL FREE to post in the community!

I literally had someone DM me this morning asking if I would tell the community about a resource he found.

And while I’m happy to do that, I’d love for more people to feel comfortable posting these resources for each other directly.

So anyways, this is me being a little vulnerable with you all today.

I admitted that I’m the guy who sometimes forgets to sign birthday cards.

And that I’ve started a community that I still feel has a lot of room to grow.

Both of those things are OK.

Because I’ve surrounded myself with incredible people who help keep me in tuned to the day-to-day details.

And I’m going to continue to make this community better, each and every day.

I’d love for you to be a part of that.

Until next time…

Live Your American Dream.

Josh