We are not merely products of influence; we are also participants in it.

For a very long time, I have heard my pastor teach on the role of relationships in who we become, what we do, and how we think.

He sums it all up with a simple line:

"Man is a product of influence." — My Pastor

For the better part of the last seven years, I have become increasingly fascinated by one thing: community.

Not merely communities as organized groups of people, but community as a force—a living system that shapes the way we think, what we believe, how we behave, and ultimately, who we become.

For a much longer time, I have held the opinion that everybody is a product of a village.

As a child, I remember learning one of the simplest definitions of the internet:

The internet is a tool that has turned the world into a global village.

At the time, it sounded like another definition to memorize for an examination. Today, I think it may be one of the most profound descriptions of the modern world.

Our villages are no longer confined to geography.

They are now digital.

Our neighbours are no longer just the people living next door. They are the creators we follow, the books we read, the podcasts we consume, the churches we belong to, the communities we participate in, the timelines we scroll through, and the conversations we repeatedly expose ourselves to.

Whether we acknowledge it or not, every one of us lives inside a village.

And every village shapes its people.

The Curse and Myth of Individualism

Modern culture celebrates the idea of the self-made individual.

We admire the entrepreneur who "did it alone." The creative genius who "thought differently." The leader who "went against the crowd."

While these stories are inspiring, they are rarely complete.

Before anyone can reject an idea, they must first encounter one.

Before anyone can challenge a system, they must first understand it.

Before anyone can become original, they must first inherit something to build upon.

Language itself is borrowed.

Culture is inherited.

Values are taught.

Beliefs are introduced.

Even rebellion requires something to rebel against.

The truth is that our minds are formed long before we begin to think we are thinking independently.

This is not a weakness of humanity; rather, it is the bedrock of what makes us human.

Every Thought Has a History

I have often argued that every ideology we hold is, in one way or another, a product of collective thinking.

This does not mean every idea is popular.

It simply means no idea appears from nowhere.

Even the ideas that transformed history were influenced by something that came before them.

Newton stood on the shoulders of giants.

The Reformers built upon centuries of theological thought.

Scientific revolutions emerged because previous discoveries created the conditions for new discoveries.

Even the ideas that oppose the culture around them often originate from another culture, another thinker, another book, another experience.

Originality is rarely creation from nothing; more often, it is the beautiful recombination of existing influences.

Our greatest ideas are conversations with generations we've never met.

We are all products of a Village

The moment I began seeing the world as one giant village, people started making more sense to me.

Success became less individual.

Failure became less individual.

Leadership became less individual.

Even identity became less individual.

Every person I meet carries invisible fingerprints left by countless influences.

• Parents.
• Teachers.
• Friends.
• Books.
• Faith.
• Music.
• Culture.
• Pain.
• Joy.
• Communities.
• Algorithms.

We are all walking archives of influence.

This realization changed the way I interact with people.

Instead of merely asking, "Who is this person?"

I find myself asking,

"What village produced this person?"

Because every behavior has a history, every conviction has a context, and every worldview has a community somewhere behind it.

But We Are Not Victims of Influence

This is where I believe the conversation becomes more interesting.

If influence only flowed toward us, then we would merely be products.

But we are more than products.

We are participants.

• Every conversation we have influences someone.
• Every child we encourage carries those words.
• Every team we lead adopts our standards.
• Every article we write shapes a reader.
• Every brand we build creates expectations.
• Every community we nurture establishes culture.

Influence is not simply something we receive.

It is something we produce.

Consciously or unconsciously, every one of us is building a village for someone else.

The question is not whether we are influencing people.

The question is: What kind of people are our influences producing?

Communities Are the Operating Systems of Civilization

History rarely changes because one remarkable person appears.

History changes because groups of people begin believing the same thing.

Religions spread through communities.

Scientific discoveries advance through communities.

Businesses grow through communities.

Nations rise because communities embrace common values.

Movements succeed because people gather around shared ideas.

Every civilization is, at its core, a community organized around shared beliefs.

If we want to change the future, perhaps we should spend less time obsessing over finding extraordinary individuals and more time building extraordinary communities.

Because communities shape culture.

Culture shapes behaviour.

Behaviour shapes history.

The Village We Leave Behind

Perhaps this is the question I have been wrestling with all along.

If I am a product of influence...

• Then what kind of influence am I becoming?
• What kind of village am I helping to build?
• Who will think differently after encountering my work?
• Who will dream bigger because we had a conversation?
• Who will lead differently because they belonged to a community I helped shape?

Maybe legacy is not measured by how many people remember our names.

Maybe it is measured by how many people unknowingly carry pieces of our thinking into the future.

We were never meant to merely inherit villages.

We were meant to build them.

Because we are not merely products of influence.

We are also participants in it.

— Toluwase Olugbemiro