How much are you willing to share?

We’ve hosted a monthly Meetup for over 10 years now, and it’s been a fascinating experience. Much of what we discuss is around the world of WordPress, the community there is amazing. When asked to describe the Meetup, I tell people “ The group is full of our competitors, but we share all of our secrets with them, and they all share theirs back, and we all leave the event smarter than when we entered. “

In many communities, that might be crazy, like I shared last year in my comparison of friendly versus ruthless rivalries. For whatever reason, anyone I meet from the WordPress community immediately falls into the “friendly” category, whereas many other marketing folks make sure it’s clear that they’re “ruthless”.

The Go-Giver

In recently re-reading the book “ The Go-Giver “, the author shares a few insights that tie into this nicely. The first is a rather simple statement:

“Actually, successful people do this all the time. Typically, the more successful they are, the more willing they are to share their secrets with others.”

The second deals more with human nature. Years ago, I had a friend that got into car accidents quite frequently and blamed “all of these crazy drivers”. You won’t be surprised to know that they were actually the cause of most of them. The world is what you…