But, when you share information (strategies, tips), you lose nothing.
Maybe, you lose just the little bit of time it took to share? Nope! You didn't lose that. That little time you spent sharing, you were:
- Reinforcing the knowledge yourself (teaching solidifies learning)
- Building up a stronger social network that will payoff 10x or 100x.
How many of you played Monopoly? Don't you remember that often, the winner was one of the traders? Nearly every trade in the world is a win-win, where the traders both benefit. The only losers are those NOT trading.
In my new startup (GoPhoto), we're putting these principles to practice, and getting GREAT results. For example:
Company Name & Logo:
To pick a company name, we did lots of brainstorming & research. Then, we went to http://crowdspring.com (fabulous site), and also floated some names & asked for help via facebook/twitter/LinkedIn. In just 3 days, we got 300+ names to consider, and vetted our top choices against 500+ people we trust. We're doing the same thing for our new logo.
For a traditional "no sharing" company, they would've hired a design firm, spent $10-30k, and taken 3-6 weeks to get this done, and would end up with something that 15 people liked.
With the open/sharing approach, we took < 1 week, <$1k, and ended up with something that 500+ people like.
Yeah, there are risks to sharing. What if your competition hears about this info? But, those risks are far outweighed by the risks of spending more, taking longer, and having worse results because you kept things too secret. Reap the huge beneftis by opening yourself up to really constructive feedback from your social circles.
Related: Your value is not in what you've done, but what you will do!
