In my career, I’ve collaborated with people who share knowledge and competed with people who hoard it.
Sharing knowledge is a core value that I hold dear. That means I even share with people who are less willing to share with others. Maybe I see these as “lead by example” opportunities?
I’ve learned that when you share knowledge with others that everyone has more opportunities to grow and thrive. When you hoard it, someone gets the short end of the stick. How is that fair? Why would anyone intentionally keep someone else from growth opportunities? Do they think it would hurt them somehow?
Candlelight
Let’s use candles as a metaphor. You can strike a match to light a single candle. If wind doesn’t blow it out, the match can transfer it’s energy to that candle. In this case, you might think the match gets the short end of the stick. With the right mindset, even though the match is tossed to the ground, it can look at the candle’s warm light and say, “I did that!” 🔥
While it’s cute to think of a proud match stick, let’s take this a step further.
With our single candle shining bright, if another candle leans in to light it’s wick, our first candle’s flame isn’t dimmed. In fact, if you pay attention, it’s flame actually gets brighter in that moment as it shares.
Once they separate, the first candle’s light is just as bright as it was before. The coolest part is, now the entire room is a little brighter!
Just like a candle, your light doesn’t shine any less when you share!
As we contine to share our light (or knowledge) with others, the entire room gets brighter and brighter.
Now, if our original candle doesn’t allow others to benefit from the light they hold, they’ll never experience that moment of intensity during the exchange. Plus, they’ll just sit alone in a dark room completely clueless of how things could be if they were more willing to share.
Knowledge is Power
I completely agree with the idea that knowledge is power. However, I think that its an old school mindset to hoard knowledge and make others pay some price to obtain it.
That feels like greed to me!
Sadly, it’s the foundation for many business models, plus most of our modern education system falls into that category.
I certainly have an opinion about the “paper ceiling“, especially since I’ve learned more outside any curriculum that I’ve tried to force myself to fit into.
A good example is how I was interested in marine biology when I was 10 years old. My only resources back then were a library, or a college. My performance in K-12 wasn’t going to expose some hidden genius to get me into a college at that age, but I still put in the effort to learn what I was interested in. Eventually I realized that technology suited me best. I certainly wouldn’t have gained that understanding from school!
As I’ve mentioned in other articles, today we have unlimited learning potential with the internet tucked in our pockets! Not to mention how powerful LLMs have proven to be in helping someone quickly obtain information about tons of topics. Although I get that it’s not always accurate 😆
We simply need to find the motivation, and navigate countless distractions, and go learn what we want (or need) to know.
The Spirit of Money
I totally get the fact that someone may choose to become an expert in a field and that others are willing to pay them for that expertise and experience. I believe I fall into that category by providing a corporation with my knowledge and intuition related to applying technology to buisness strategies.
It’s a service that I provide and “service” is the spirit of money. It makes sense when someone doesn’t have an interest, or the time, to learn what I’ve built over several decades.
However, when someone is interested it’s important to share with them. They may learn that they’re not a fan after all and rely on you to be their expert.
Conclusion
My personal experiences have proven to me that when two experts collaborate, and share knowledge, that they both walk away stronger. I’m far stronger after collaborating with many different experts willing to share their knowledge with me. I’ve also had people express how I’ve helped them by sharing my knowledge.
The goal of this article is to encourage you to share what you know with anyone willing to learn. Also, I aim to inspire you to pursue the knowledge you have a need, or interest, to obtain. Especially when someone is intentionally keeping you in the dark.
If you’re being kept in the dark, never give up on your pursuit for that knowledge. There’s always someone out there willing to share, and even mentor you, to help your light shine!
My wife deserves the credit for the “candlelight” section of this article, since she’s the one who shared that concept with me, which I live by now 🤗
