Adding Value To Others – Scrooge vs Elf
With Christmas films a couple of weeks away our mindsets can be Scrooge like meagreness or Elf like generosity.
Whilst the new world rewards generosity, there was a time two years ago where I believed that we have to be insular and to keep our best work to ourselves. Why should we show others how things need to be done, this is what customers need to pay for, right? To some it may almost feel like opening the magic box and showing all the tricks that are used to give someone else competitive advantage.
If We Give, Does That Mean Someone Takes?
Scarcity comes to those who believe that if you give something away to help others, then other people will steal your ideas and your business.
A meagre mindset believes that if you aim to inform and help others, then potential customers are going to think that they can replicate what you provide, rather than thinking that eventually someone won’t be able to do it themselves and at that point whom will they turn to?
A mindset that is self-focused follows Scrooge’s belief that Christmas is a “time for finding yourself older and not an hour richer.” Rather than holding things back, there is abundance in releasing.
By putting your best foot forward and the old adage of ‘there’s more where that came from’ has a completely different mindset. For instance, it is far easier to play by the new rules and have a focus to solve problems from a customers’ perspective and add value. If a mindset of scarcity promotes insecurity, then one of generosity understands the need for you and how you help will never go away. As an example, the choice of people I follow on Twitter always gravitates to those who share useful resources. Whether a blog article or an insightful guide, the main aim is to give the opportunity for us to find an answer ourselves.
Adding Value To Others
The more generous you are, the more you stay true to yourself. In the words of Buddy, from Elf, “Actually, I’m a human, but I was raised by elves.” If we put this into a business context, we all need to strive to have our own identities and stand for something as opposed to blending in with other companies and being the same as everyone else.
To succeed and give away information freely is nothing new it even dates back to the old ‘give, and it will be given to you’ statement. The premise is simple, the more that you give, you more that you get (from referrals, credibility to new business).
To Sum Up
We can’t let the way that things have been done before constrain us in terms of self-promotion rather than helping. If Scrooge represents an attitude that is uncaring, selfish and impatient, a more Buddy like approach has an authentic, honest and useful to others mindset by adding value to others. This is the route that clearly wins.
