I've been blogging about wisdom entrepreneurs and the path to A Bigger Voice since late 2007. I've talked to lots of experts, did a pilot with four wisdom entrepreneurs, had numerous conversations with kindred spirits, and helped many attempting to go down this path. Here are the 8 biggest mistakes that I've observed:

1. Mistaking passion for an idea for the ability to effectively communicate an idea.  It's easy to think that because you get it, everyone else will. But the communication of the idea is as important, if not more, than the idea itself. I listened to a podcast about entrepreneurship recently where this advice came out:  Spend 20% of your time developing the product and 80% on the marketing and sales. For wisdom entrepreneurs, this translates into 20% on development of the idea, and 80% on the communication of it. Photo by jonny goldstein.
2. Downplaying the need to tell your story. People need to hear how the idea that you are so passionate about came into being. Bless all those humble wisdom entrepreneurs out there who don't like talking about themselves. (You know who you are.) But without a human voice representing the cause, your ideas are less likely to engage others. Your story is essential to that engagement, not only to make it personally inviting to others, but because story helps others make sense of why you, why now. It gives credibility to your cause.
3. Thinking too narrowly about the beneficiaries of your cause. This impacts not only who you invite into your community (the kindred spirits) but also limits how you think about monetizing. One wisdom entrepreneur I know has a cause of creating more living donors in general and specifically for kidneys. He was discouraged that his potential "community" consisted of only those patients on the waiting list for kidneys, about 70,000 people. And yet the people who care about his cause are not only the patients but their families, their doctors, their friends.
4. Focusing only on top down, instead of top down + bottom up.  It's easy to go after the "big fish", those who you perceive have money or status or power. And yet, this is just one half of the equation (and becoming less relevant all the time with the pervasiveness of social media and crowdsourcing.) Relying on the traditional power structure to promote and align with your cause will only get you so far, so fast. Again, going back to the living donor example, the crux of their efforts focused on Congress and policy makers in Washington, DC. One of the founders of the cause wrote several Op-Eds for the Wall Street Journal. But the real power comes when there is a groundswell from those who personally feel the pain of not enough living donors–patients and their families,  friends, and health care providers. These are people who become engaged in a community and respond to a call to action. Photo by VinothChandar
5. Ignoring the use of technology to expand your reach. This has been less of a problem with the pervasiveness of social media, but it still bears a footnote for "digital immigrants."  It's easy to stick with what you know and not invest the time into other ways of reaching your tribe.  
6. Focusing on an event rather than a conversation. I have a friend who has organized a social entrepreneur day in his local area for the past few years. He usually has a prominent speaker fly in from out of town, gets the mayor and other luminaries to say a few words, and lines up several events throughout the day.  The problem is that it happens once a year, with no follow-up as a community to continue the conversation.  Sparks initiated by the day of events are likely to be snuffed out without some support afterward. 
7. Forgetting that community building is a two-way dialogue, not a one-way broadcast. Nothing dismays me more than to see a site for a wisdom entrepreneur that offers no means for the reader to respond and contribute. Contact pages don't count. Really. Information dumping doesn't take the place of authentic dialogue and being shaped and influenced by that dialogue. Photo by BASFPlantScience
8. Neglecting the balance between outward engagement and inward focus. Sometimes, the wisdom entrepreneur needs to visible and out in front, sparking the conversation, telling her story, creating alliances. Other times, she needs to be reflecting, self-managing, and working on her own personal growth in order to be more effective in the world. Both are needed, in good measure. 

I'm not immune to these mistakes, so the adage, "People who throw stones shouldn't live in glass houses" comes to mind. This post is as much for me as it is for you.

What mistakes have you made?  What mistakes have you observed others make?