Build the thing the social order has to come to.

principle — attributed to Julius Solaris

Solaris's first event, at fourteen in southern Italy, was a club night for the local teenage crowd. He had no social capital and no obvious path into the existing scene. He partnered with a friend, put his own money into a venue, brought in a DJ, and opened the doors. The kids who would not stand near him in the hallway came inside the gathering because he was the one who had decided where it would be and what time it would start. The principle generalizes. If the existing rooms will not admit you, build the room they have to come to. Every later move in his career descends from that one night.

For outsiders in any field who have been waiting for invitation into the rooms that matter. The principle is most useful as an organizing frame for any operator deciding whether to keep applying for entry or to construct the alternative the existing operators will eventually need to attend.

origin, outsider-strategy, platform-creation, first-event