If you are learning new things but not sharing, you’re doing a disservice to those around you. Maybe you think others get it already and you’re just new to the game. But it’s never the case. There’s always someone in the audience who hasn’t learned what you’re talking about. They might’ve missed the news, or maybe they’ve been using something else to get a job done, and don’t realize that they could be doing something new. An interesting thing happens when you teach others what you know: it builds authority within yourself, and it builds good will between you and your extended audience. Teaching and sharing and extending your knowledge out to others bubbles opportunities to the surface that might not have shown themselves otherwise. Bre here, in this picture, is the KING of teaching others. It’s baked into his life model. So, why aren’t YOU teaching what you know?
Not Enough Time
There’s never enough time to get done the things that need doing. It’s a given. But the more folks you teach, the more you can raise the bar. Build networks of people who do what needs doing. Extend. Friendsource. Do virtual barn raising. There’s not enough time to build a million little arks. These fishbowls need to be broken, and you NEED to get out there and swim among the masses. Teaching others what you know, and building larger PLATFORMS for people to understand and work on things together will pay off more in the larger story.
Not Unique
If everyone’s doing what you’re doing, it makes you a cog, the same as everyone else. Bullshit. How many pitchers are playing baseball today? Are they all doing it the same way? How many guitarists? Painters? Everything you do is the same as everyone else. Only you do it differently. The power in teaching others what you know is that they’ll grow the concept, do something different, make it better, and then you can jump on, learn what they did, and then flip it through the permutations again.
No Return on Effort
If you’re giving away all this knowledge, what’s in it for you? There are countless rewards to dispensing knowledge. Being known as the person with answers and how-to knowledge is almost immediately useful to your standing in the world, because there are plenty of people in the camp of NOT knowing. The return? More people knowing how to do what needs doing. More people working on the larger solution instead of reinventing the wheel.
Not an Expert
Why should people listen to you? You’re not an expert. Forget this one. If you know something, chances are someone else needs to know it. If you’ve figured out keyboard shortcuts to GMAIL, someone else needs that info. Have you figured out the best settings to transcode MPG to DV? Great! I don’t know those. Share? See? EVERYONE has something to teach. Everyone, and that includes you.
Any Questions?
If you’re not teaching and extending knowledge, and developing the larger picture around you, what are you doing instead? Why aren’t you taking on the larger questions and taking your swing at it?
And if you ARE teaching? Where are you putting it? How are you sharing it? Can people find it? Can they search it?
There’s a new media revolution on, and I’m not saying that to be dramatic. There’s something big moving. For every $5 Million Wallstrip deal out there, for every consolidation and purchase and shift, there are more things to be said and done in the personal media / new media / creating new things space.
Be a grasshopper. Teach. Share. Grow.
photo credit brex