Stop Being a Knowledge Snob
*This story was originally published on Medium.Every day entrepreneurs learn new things, we fail in new ways and we stumble over new steps. It’s time to start sharing these lessons, not protecting them.I’m so tired of people protecting their experience and knowledge as if it’s the one ring that binds them all. Your Precious.You might think that the special trick you just learned is unique. It’s not.You may think that the lesson you just learned after spending a ton of money is worth protecting so that no one else will know it. It isn’t.I understand that you believe you’ve got an edge. I understand that you think that everyone else needs to suffer through their lessons the way that you suffered through yours but that’s very childish and short-sighted.The more we all share, the more we’ll all grow.There’s this new thing that’s burst onto the scene recently that’s a great example of how sharing knowledge can help everyone. It’s called the Internet.Sharing knowledge really works. Crazy but true.But I Need My Knowledge To Beat My CompetitorYes, you do. That’s 100% correct.I’m not asking you to divulge industry secrets.I’m just asking you to be honest and transparent about what you’re going through. Don’t mislead people and tell them that everything is going brilliantly when it’s not.Don’t let younger entrepreneurs believe that starting a business is a cake walk.Don’t force other people to blow their hard earned (or raised) cash learning things you can help them learn faster.A rising tide lifts all ships.The more money we all make, the more money we’ll all make.Read the above sentence again. Let that sink in.If there is an ecosystem of wealth and wealth creation, it becomes contagious and self-fulfilling.It’s extremely rare that you are the only person breaking into a completely untapped market and that you need to hide your trade secrets from everyone to get a leg up. It’s more likely that you’re entering a cluttered space and could either use some help or could help others.The advertising industry is a great case in point. There is very little new and innovative that’s happening. Clients cycle from one agency to the next looking for a silver bullet. That silver bullet at the moment is digital. All the agencies have a similar product or service offering and they all ultimately do similar things. But there’s one thing missing that they can all work together to improve.The entire industry (agencies and their clients) could massively benefit from more knowledge sharing and less knowledge snobbery. If a few agencies got together and decided to educate their clients en masse about digital do you know what would happen? No, the clients wouldn’t abandon ship and hop to a different ageny. They’d probably spend more of their marketing budget on digital overall. That would mean that everyone would have more budget to play with. Right now, education is the problem and it’s one that everyone can solve if they all actively engage with one another instead of bumped heads.The Startup Knowledge CurseStartups across the world believe that they are onto something that no one has caught onto yet. I know. I was there too and sometimes I still think that. But the truth is, we all deal with the same difficulties that end up destroying our businesses and very rarely is it our core idea.The things that destroy us all are cash flow, accounting, HR, PR, Marketing and all of the other business basics that we’re too proud to admit that we struggle with. Imagine if we all willingly gave of our knowledge on these topics and shared the best solutions to get into the game. We’d have a whole culture of strong businesses that are able to focus on what really matters, not the business basics that slowly kill us all.The Fear of FailureA big part of the secrecy that we all perpetuate is fear. Fear forces us to clam up instead of ask the stupid questions. No one wants to look like the dumbest person in the room. We all know the saying and it’s a cliché for a reason:There are no stupid questions.There are only condescending and stupid people who answer questions like assholes.The other day I had to ask a client what a monthly statement was. I had invoiced them, they owed me some money and wanted a statement. I had to google it as well as wait for their explanation. That’s a pretty simple thing that I should probably have known. Once I had googled it, I immediately knew what it was and why I needed to provide one. But without actually googling it, how wouldI have known? I wouldn’t have. I’m not an accountant, I’m not the CFO in my company. But now I know. Simple problem, simple solution.You may be sitting there smugly laughing at how much of an idiot I am to now know what a monthly statement is in that context.That’s exactly the problem right there. I’m most definitely not the only person who has had that problem. But culturally we’re programmed to immediately make people feel small and less intelligent than ourselves. That’s got to change.The more empowered we are to take risks and share knowledge, the more chance we all have to create sustainable and profitable businesses.It’s hard out there on your own. It’s time we start to share our experiences so that we can create a thriving economy.
