Does being Generous mean Cheap?

To the generous mind the heaviest debt is that of gratitude, when it is not in our power to repay it.
Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)

One very serious conern about being generous with ideas is the quality of those ideas. Benjamin Franklin makes a wonderful point. He says that we cannot repay a generous mind because their free gift to us is beyond price.

But so many times, it is easy to give away that which doesn't take much to give. I think about all of the "made in China" gifts you get for giving to a charity. Well, is it that way with ideas? Do we cull over the pile of ideas in our head and give away the ones that we don't want to use? The ones that we're not sure anyone will use?

I have to admit that sometimes I save the powerful concepts for myself and throw the ones that I don't really want to develop out like old bones I have already chewed.

But there are times when I choose to share an idea I am very excited about. Those are usually the times of the greatest synergy and growth. My idea gets sharpened and usually it sprouts new ideas in my partner in generosity.

That is when the generous mind truely shines.

Comments

Justin Long said…
consider whether we operate from an attitude of plenty or an attitude of scarcity (see Kevin Kelly's "New Rules for the New Economy"). The industrialized economy operated from scarcity rules. The more scarce something was, the more valuable it became (aka diamonds, oil, any commodity). However, a network economy says the more plenteous something is, the more valuable it becomes. The thing to bear in mind is that if we cultivate our minds, we will always have new and better ideas. Ideas come from new possibilities, and new possibilities arrive every day. The possibility of space travel, for example, opened up lots of new ideas. The possibility of translating the Bible would open up lots of new ideas in translation technologies. If we become generous with these ideas, we make ourselves valuable - not because we have one good idea, but because we have many good ideas, one right after the other. Thus our value is in our capacity for having good ideas, not in single ideas. Any single idea will die after a time. Just look at the number of companies that had 1 good idea and then when that idea was passed, when the way of the wind.
7:33 PM
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