Does Sharing Knowledge Make You Lose Your Competitive Advantage?
Interacting with many people in life, I have noticed that:
Some people are hesitant to share their knowledge and skills because they fear that once shared, others will copy them and become better than them. They fear that sharing will cause them to lose their own competitive advantage in society.
So do we really lose our competitive advantage when sharing what we know with others? - I think yes… but the probability of that happening is extremely low!
You should understand that for someone to “steal” the knowledge and skills from your shares and then use them to become better than you is by no means easy. It is governed by the following factors:
1. Everyone experiences a different life
No two lives are identical. Everyone has their own life. We have different relationships. We are educated differently. And we also go through different events in our own lives.
Because of this, each individual's mindset is uniquely shaped. That leads us to have very different perspectives on the same issue.
Therefore, among the thousands of people who come across your shares, only a small fraction will feel that the information is useful to them .
2. In the digital age, everything is available on the internet
Do not assume that all the knowledge, skills, or information you possess are your own personal "secrets."
Take a skill or piece of knowledge you think you are best at and search for it on Google. Don't be surprised to find that what you consider your own "secret" has already been widely shared for free by many others.
Thus in reality, if someone needs information on a specific skill or knowledge, they don't have to wait until you share it to find it easily on the internet .
3. Everyone has a different learning capacity
Turning written words into deeply ingrained knowledge in the brain is a long process. The human brain is wonderful, but it is not something that allows you to absorb and master every piece of knowledge after just a few reads.
Furthermore, each person's ability to absorb different types of knowledge varies; some absorb certain knowledge faster, while being slower with other kinds.
Because of this, not everyone who reads your shares will fully absorb the ideas you wish to convey and become 100% like you .
4. Everyone has a different capacity for persistent practice
Turning someone else's knowledge into your own is already difficult. Applying that knowledge to real-life situations is ten thousand times harder.
A real-life example: The recipe for crispy roasted pork belly is very simple. But mastering it to achieve a melt-in-your-mouth crispy pork skin takes a huge amount of time and effort. Moreover, how many people do you think are willing to spend 4–5 hours roasting meat that will be consumed in just 20 minutes?
Knowing the knowledge and skills of a master does not mean you can immediately compete with them.
Skills must be honed and cultivated over time to reach maturity. And not everyone has the perseverance required to reach that level of mastery.
Bottom lines
In conclusion, in this era of globalization, information and knowledge are shared openly and fairly. Whether you share or not, useful information will always exist and be shared by others.
So if you think you must keep your “secrets to yourself” so those around you cannot defeat you, the person who suffers the most might actually be yourself.
“Be generous.”
Be more open and give what you have; you will realize that others will also open their hearts and be willing to give you what they have!
* Images in this article are taken from Flaticon
Thank you for reading my article!
Kim,
09/08/2022