On Sharing and Contributing Your Ideas

I’m starting to come to grips with the fact that I’m merely on the outskirts of the video production industry. And after a few years of producing video, I admit that I expected myself to be more successful – not only in terms of money, but also in terms of my portfolio, network, and exposure.

On my path of personal growth, I’m beginning to realize where I went wrong and what I’ll have to focus on to change my life around.

Sharing and Contributing

This issue was hard for me to deal with, even though I understood it in a logical sense. But whenever I learned or gained something valuable, I kept it to myself. And it’s ironic because my values are quite the opposite on an issue like a nation’s wealth (if the rich shared more then there wouldn’t be such a gap between the wealthy and the needy). But I held onto the little knowledge that I had gained because I was afraid of being exploited if I shared; that maybe someone with more resources could take my ideas and act on them quicker and more effectively, leaving me in the dust.

While I’m nowhere near where I want to be with sharing my ideas, I am not only understanding the concept but taking action as well. I’m doing it by writing (privately and publicly), tweeting, filming, and meeting up with others in the industry and outside.

Isolating Yourself

If you are unwilling to share and contribute, you are essentially isolating yourself. Because of poor exposure, nobody will know who you are and will not have much reason to talk to you. More importantly, people would rather ignore you because of your selfish attitude.

Sometimes you will run into people who will take your ideas and use it for their own benefit without any credit to you. All I can say is either act on your own idea first or prepare to do it better. Not the best advice, I know. I’ll update you guys if I figure out a better solution.