Do you steal sometimes? Or maybe do others steal from you? – E07

Has anyone stolen your idea? When do you let others use something that belongs to you? And when don’t you? Are you sometimes a thief?

Welcome to my next episode.

Listen to “07 – Do you steal sometimes? Or maybe do others steal from you?” on Spreaker.

Transcription

This is the podcast 8 Minutes to Success. I’m Kinga Panufnik and I invite you to spend the next 8 minutes with me.

On my way to success I’ve learnt a lot from others. That is why I’ d like to share my personal experience with you.

Welcome.

One day at work I observed a situation when one company had stolen a product design from another. I mean they’d come up with exactly the same thing but under their own brand. The creators were pissed off and they started to gather evidence which would allow them to sue those who had copied them. Under the law they were right. I was also pissed off.

Then I heard some very important words which caused me to look at the situation from a different perspective. The CEO of the company whose product was copied said to me: “You know, I really should thank them. This is the best recommendation they were able to give about us if they have copied what we’ve done. They are saying we are the best, even better than they are. Because if you believe you can do better, you would do it by yourself without coping anybody. It is not common that your competitors say something nice about you on the market. They have confirmed though, that they believe in our products and our design. This is better feedback than any award.”

We want to be pioneers, to be admired and create trends on the market. Are we able to accept that we will be followed, or maybe even spied? It is really nice when people are grateful for what we’ve given them by openly acknowledging us as authors, as inspiration. But not many people do this.

Being a role model to others need our acceptance that we will be watched, copied, and followed and also acceptance that we will be judged, rejected, or refused. I am sure that many world speakers’ quotes are used by others without the author’s name.

If somebody has already stolen our work, or our creation, or our idea,  how do we feel about it? Are we OK with that? Or maybe we try to build a thick wall like we are trying to protect ourselves against a huge army? Do we build our defenses even higher in order to protect ourselves from another attack or invasion? The feeling that appears very often is – a fear of losing something which is mine. Because this is mine, mine. How could somebody do this to me?

The feeling of being deceived, or screwed is in our minds rather than in something that really exists. We live in a world where some create and some copy. Where some are grateful and some are not. The world is like that though.

I think there is a remedy against the feeling of losing something,  the feeling that somebody has copied us, or has stolen our work. This remedy can supports us with by the power and strength to feel fulfilled. I’ve been observing this for some time and step by step I’m attempting to applying it in my own life.

The remedy is to be transparent. To be open to others, and share with them our knowledge, ideas, or work. The more often we share our stuff with others and become transparent in our actions, decisions, plans, or strategies the more difficult it is to steal from us. Because we’ve already given it to the public.  

If you create something, it is you, who’s setting the trend, but remember that you’re giving the world something that people will want to apply, use, or implement by coping it. Look at the fashion brands. How many fake products can we find in many countries. But these fake products also support the genuine ones. Because demand rises for all of them, so they all become even more popular.

Have you ever cheated at school? Have you cheated by coping somebody else? Who did you cheat from? The best student or the worse one? When we copy someone we actually show them our admiration.

And a challenge for you for next week.

Imagine that you are invited to a party and you have no idea what to wear. You try on almost everything you have in your closet and still have no idea. Then you come up with an idea that you put on a long sleeve top and a jacket over it, but you remove one of the jacket‘s sleeve to reveal the sleeve which is underneath. And you do this only on one arm. You look in the mirror. It looks really good, and you are satisfied. It’s funky, super-duper. You join the party and everybody is amazed, astonished by your creation.

One week later you are invited to another party. There are different people and you wear casual clothes. But one person who was at the previous party turns up here with the same outfit you had on previously. And people are also amazed, impressed by its look.

And here’s a question for you.

Look at yourself and tell yourself, be deeply honest, how you would feel about that. Would you feel cheated because the creation was your idea? That something had been brutally stolen from you, without your permission, and without any acknowledgement toward you? Would you want to shout to all the guests: It was my idea.

Or maybe would you feel proud of yourself, even though nobody else knows, but you know that you have the power to change the world, to set trends, and to make that people follow you.

I leave you with this picture of yourself. To be aware of this gives us the power to make changes in our lives. Even difficult times, and unpleasant images of ourselves can be positive learning experiences.

Try to appeal to your better side and face the fact that sharing can be a pleasure. Give to others with an open heart, without any expectations toward yourself and without fear. This will be for the good of everybody.

That’s all for today.

See you next time.

Bye, bye.

This was 8 Minutes to Success. If I’ve left you wanting more that’s great. It’s much healthier to stay a little hungry rather than eat too much and feel sick. I hope you will listen to my next episode. To avoid missing any I recommend that you sign up for the newsletter on my website www.8minutestosuccess.com and the next episode will be sent to your email straight from the production line. Don’t be afraid I won’t be bringing this out every day. Don’t forget to subscribe. Would also be nice to get some comments from you and if you feel it’s worthy you can share it with your friends.

Take care. Bye, bye.