TwoCents | COLLABORATION: KEY TO INNOVATION

Of all the faults in the attitude of Gen Z, there are some areas in which they excel and can not be faulted; one is in their spirit of collaboration.  There is a belief and mindset that resources are a diminishing commodity, so for you to get as much as you can, you must hoard and hide your source. This belief may be logical, but it also is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Imagine there is a news coverage stating that cash is scarce. What happens is that people become conscious and become very miserly. This will cause a reduction in the cash flow, which will then make people resolve to hold more cash from panic, hence fulfilling the forecast of scarcity of cash. This is the same thing that happens when we hoard ideas, resources and knowledge, innovation drops. There becomes a monopoly of these things, and while the person sitting on top seems to get wealthy, the level of development across the board would not be as much as what they would have had from collaboration.  Story time. Before streaming and audio files, when people still used tapes and discs to listen to music. Some label owners and companies, in a bid to stop piracy of their music, engaged in lawsuits and prosecution of their customers; why? Because they were downloading and playing their songs (masters) online. This went on until they realised that they couldn't be fighting their core audience, which was teenagers, by the way. They decided to stop fighting and evolve. Now I bet when they look back they would kick themselves knowing that they tried to kill the golden goose. That era of digital audio has given rise to streaming, synch, ads, and content creation. Even the remixes and covers bring awareness to the original content, as well as provide royalties to the original creator. There is also the part of making money across various platforms because they are open to innovation and seeing how they can optimise and maximise profit from one product. The point is that the most relevant businesses or individuals know how to evolve, and there is no better way of evolving than working with new people and learning from their perspectives. When we collaborate, we draw from what some schools of thought call "The Hive Mind", where you get the combined years of experience and expertise from all collective parties involved. What better way is there to mitigate failure and boost chances of success? Not to mention with the drive of man to achieve goals, what can really stop a group of people with a singular goal in mind?

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