Note: I'm not talking about taxation.
In this write-up, I wish to explore the power of fairness, and why it is in anyone's best interest to seek for the 50/50 deal when it comes to collaborations. This is written in hopes to inspire content creators to start building collaborative relationships with their peers.
From aggregation to sharing (collaborative) economy - a hint?
Uber and Airbnb are examples of aggregators. These setups function as curators and regulators. Such a model allows for exposure and discovery of related products and services. However, value creation of such a model is necessarily siloed. Afterall, an aggregator is a middleman taking a cut out of every aggregation service rendered to fund its various business activities. In this way, actual service providers may not enjoy the full fruits of their labor.
Enter the sharing, collaborative economy -
I'm not talking about taxing wealth creation for redistribution. In fact, the sharing economy is quite like the aggregation economy, except that the middleman cut is distributed amongst the supporters of the social network that may otherwise be siloed by an aggregator. Such a social network curates and self-regulates its own directory of service providers or content creators. Participants in the sharing economy are involved in the platform as a whole, and not separated from it. Just like Steemit.
There is a great reason for such a market force: wealth creation should be distributed fairly, with its machinations and moving parts to be decided by the general consensus. There is power in fairness and it's becoming enabled by blockchain technology. Peer-to-peer, with the entire network acting as a regulatory middleman.
One example is Arcade City -
It is like Uber.. but without the giant corporation taking 10-15% out of every transaction. Theoretically, supporters of the Arcade City network are in fact, the collective middleman. It's a relatively smaller middleman cut compared to Uber. The cut is distributed amongst the network participants instead of being siloed in a centralized entity.
With the recent fiasco happening in Steemit when it comes to content aggregators, please note that it's up to the market forces in Steemit to adjust its course to support the model that better distributes wealth creation.
Such a paradigm shift marks the importance of the 50/50 -
It is a powerful lesson, and one that we could all learn from. Sure, it's anyone's choice to be a lone wolf in the economy. However, social interactions are a huge part of economic participation. On a personal note: I have the tendency to work alone, simply because it's faster. However, when it comes to creating value with others, I only see advantages in making 50/50 a default. My best deals are always made with those that understand the 50/50 paradigm. Mathematically-speaking, there are no other ratios to symbolize the concept of sharing.
Benefits of 50/50 collaborations
Collaboration is not new, but the point of this article is to promote 50/50 as the golden mean in collaborations. If you're always seeking the largest advantage in a partnership, then perhaps collaboration isn't your thing. The crux of a good collaboration involves two-or-more active participants. A one-sided deal isn't always the best for human emotions. Here are some of the great benefits in mindful 50/50 collaborations:-
- By seeking fairness, you are mentally equipped to look for people with complementary skills.
- 50/50 maximizes sense of ownership, bringing the best out of all parties involved.
- Cross-disciplinary collaborations create hybrid, unique initiatives with added value.
- A more involving process creates better learning, diversification, and distribution of value.
- Trust and reputation will be strengthened and distributed - producing greater network effects.
- 50/50 allows for leeway. Collaborators can mutually adjust contributions and manage expectations.
With respect to Steemit, deep-collaboration is perhaps the best kind of initiative to support. This is something for the community to consider if it is socioeconomically better to distribute wealth creation appropriately to active-participants.
A brief primer on 50/50 collaborations
Trust and reputation are obvious first filters when it comes to determining candidates for collaboration. There is no way around this. You would have to rely on personal interactions, testimonials, benchmarks, and gut feeling. Do your due diligence. The following highlights the rest of the way.
Profile yourself & focus on strength -
Try profiling yourself and others using the T-profile method. Everyone has broad interests and certain deep skill-sets. They're all strengths. Go ahead, try using the T-profile on yourself! I would suggest that you save it up and use it as a summary of your character when it comes to collaborating with potential peers.
Complementing each other with personal strengths is good enough justification for a 50/50 collaboration - I'm sure you'd agree with that. Honest market actors will also tend to volunteer shifting the initial 50/50 offer, if one side is generally more skillful or reputable.
Manage expectations -
Start with loose goals and deadlines. Collaboration dynamics will sort itself out over time, and indeed, take your time before setting up more focused goals. It is important to manage expectations when collaborating. Trust each other to deliver, and speak openly about any disagreements.
Try to add on top of suggestions -
It's easy to say "But.. this and that.. let's try my way". However, I personally find it more fulfilling and constructive to add onto suggestions, saying "And.. this and that.. let's make it better!". Bring the best out of a collaboration by improving on ideas, and not spending too much time debating whose idea is better. Inconsistency of ideas will reconcile at a later time.
The importance of a fair, collaborative environment.
Humanity is largely diverse and uneven. However, human activities / complete free market is inherently unfair. The savvy money-hungry market actors triumph over good creators. Wealth acquisition is a skill - and there's nothing wrong with that. The best that we can do is to even it out in our own little ways.
What I'm trying to say is this - we can find fairness in an unfair world if we put our minds to it. It is not about forcing others to share with you, but rather, for you to seek fairness when interacting with others. Go solo or go with a 50/50 mentality. Don't do it just for the money, but do it for the deeper interactions that such collaborations necessarily lead to. That's how the game will change.
I hope this write-up is going to inspire involving, 50/50 collaborations on Steemit. Or life in general. Never underestimate the power of fairness.
Here's an example of a nicely executed 50/50 collaboration.
Written exclusively for Steemit.
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