Photo courtesy of Polina Sergeeva

Fight Club has to be one of the most influential movies for my generation. The movie along with the book are a few things that you can't tell too much about without spoiling them. If you haven't seen the movie or read the book, get them now. They are definitely worth it.

Between the philosophical undertones and the fights that occur during the movie there is a lot of practical stuff for those who are interested in starting a business (especially one based on a community). Some of the learnings I have observed from reading the book and watching the movie are as follows:

1. It begins with you

Whenever starting a new business it usually begin with you. First of all you have an idea. More importantly however, there are a number of lifestyle changes that need to be made in order to prepare yourself to take on your new found business. The first Fight Club began with the Narrator and Tyler Durden. However, in order for this to happen the narrator had to lose all of his material possessions and his previous life. Some of the learning points in this phase (as mentioned in the movie) are:

• The things you own end up owning you.
• A moment is all you can ever expect from perfection. (note: this is one of the most powerful lines in the book I wish was in the movie. Perfection is to be aspired to but is never obtained. Any brief moment of perfection makes it all worthwhile. Hard work is required to get it).
• You're not your job. you're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the content of your wallet. You're not your f***in khakis.
• Never be complete. Stop being perfect. Let's evolve.
• First of all you have to give up, first you have to know... not fear... know... that someday you are going to die.

The first step in starting your own business is self-mastery. You need to be able to throw away other desires and be willing to make the sacrifices. You need to stop defining yourself as what you have and rather by what you do. You need to be willing to give up the society norm for success. You need to realise that you and your business will never be perfect, but you should continue to try anyway.

Another point is that Fight Club began with only the narrator and Tyler. You will likely begin a business with no support, no networks, no place to work, etc. Begin anyway. Start right where you are and with what you have available now. Build from there.

2. Develop the message

Fight Club was about helping people to realise that their is more to life than mere accumulation and existence. Life was to be lived and full of excitement, fun and self-realisation. It was about throwing away the cares of your existence and finding something more meaningful. Your business needs to do the same. Ensure you have a purpose and a vision for the business and where it is going.

3. Build your community

Communities are built one person at a time. If social media has taught us anything it is that community is integral to the way people want to live their lives. I recently watched a YouTube video on how to live to 100+. One of the main things was friendships and a sense of community helps maintain a life worth living.

In the movie Fight Club, Tyler Durden and the narrator began with themselves and slowly found other like-minded individuals who join their community. As the community expanded, they found a regular place to hang out. You need to do the same for your business. Build a community one member at a time, and find a place for them to hang out (even if only temporarily).

4. Expand the community

This is where things start to get exciting. As your little community gains traction, it is time to expand. Setting up more small communities (as well as commissioning people to run them) is important in this step. An example can be seen as follows: A blogger initially begins with his blog. As it expands, he can setup a facebook fan page, a page on Ning or community forums where members of the community can engage and interact with each other.

Fight Club did the same thing. They began setting up other clubs in different states across the country. They started meeting several nights of the week, with new members showing up despite being asked not to tell anyone. They began giving homework assignments and creating things for people to do to feel like an active member of the community. Having people wholeheartedly become a part of something builds dramatic momentum.

5. Eliminate yourself from the cogs

As the community grows you want to be able to step back and have other people run it without you being there all the time. Sure, you should have an active role but you must begin to see a bigger picture. There is an old saying that houses are designed from the top down and built from the bottom up. I think the same is true with businesses. You have to begin at the low levels and then fill positions as you need to step into bigger roles for expansion. Tyler Durden's presence was known in Fight Clubs but he wasn't always at every one. He had other people managing them.

6. Get out of the basement and build your team of space monkeys

Once your community gets too big it is time to step back and begin developing a bigger project with a larger purpose. You get a 'Project Mayhem' started: a back end of the business where you begin to enlist the key leaders (Ummm... space monkeys?) in the community into a bigger project. Using a blog as an example, this might mean building back end products that only the most loyal members of the community purchase, as well as developing a team to further promote and achieve plans and milestones for the business.

7. Leave a legacy

Ideally you want a business to get to the point where it becomes your legacy and you are no longer required. This allows you to go and start the process again in a new business or to do what you want with your time. Tyler Durden does this in the book and the movie, and his impact is remembered despite not being involved anymore. Leaving a legacy is idea for a community. Using bloggers again as an example, you see this when a blog moves from being written by one person to being a blog written by several people with the occasional (or no) input from the founder. They don't need to be there but the community continues to expand.

Where is your business (or community) at currently in the Fight Club process? How can you begin to increase through the stages until you have left a legacy for others to embrace?