Why I'm Not Afraid to Create Competition When Sharing Valuable Professional Information
There is a game called Diablo. I have buried many hours of my life in its third part. I do not regret anything, it was fun. By the way, since we are talking about it: when I used to play it, I sometimes thought that it was something bad – to waste time on computer games like that. And now, when for some inexplicable physiological reasons I get less and less joy from them every year, I remember with warm nostalgia the good old thousands of gaming hours, full of fun and pleasure. And I do not regret anything.
In general, Diablo 3 had auctions for some time. One for in-game currency, the other for real money. Since there were a lot of players, there was also quite a lot of money in these auctions. Some transactions reached tens of thousands of dollars. And somehow this topic caught my attention, and I decided to try to earn some gold too. Yes, in-game currency. For some reason, I was not drawn to real money (and perhaps in vain).
I think I spent at least a thousand hours before I figured it all out. After thousands of trials and errors, reading instructions from other players that appeared here and there, and systematizing all this knowledge, I understood how everything works. I understood where to get the first hundred thousand gold without spending much time. How to turn them into a million, into ten million, into a hundred million. Finally, how to get to the first billion and increase it on a daily basis.
The auction in Diablo had rules similar to those of real auctions. When you had more than a billion on your account, it was already capital. And if before, in order to earn a million, you had to make dozens and hundreds of deals, now it was enough to spend a few minutes to quickly buy an undervalued item for ten million and sell it for fifteen. The knowledge I gained in this game helps me to this day.
At some point, I decided to make sure that this knowledge would not be lost, went to the official Diablo forum and wrote a guide for beginners. A huge, systematic guide, broken down into stages, by capital size and specific descriptions of what, when and how to do to get to the coveted billion. At the time of writing the guide, I had about twenty billion gold on my balance, which was equivalent to two thousand euros in real money, which I could exchange at any time at a neighboring auction and withdraw.
Many forum participants thanked me for the information, some complained about the many letters, and there were also those who scolded me for the fact that after such publications newbies would come running and create unnecessary competition. But nothing of the sort happened. The instructions only helped those people who would have achieved results without me. They just wouldn't have to spend 1000 hours with me. A couple of hundred would have been enough. But a couple of hundred hours is a threshold that only a few will overcome.
And this became one of the clear confirmations that I can confidently share information about something useful, understanding that too few people will use my advice for it to threaten my competitiveness. What can I say! No one will master the method of touch typing with ten fingers to save several months of their life. Because it is dozens of hours of work. No one will implement an idea or project if I tell others about them. Because it is hundreds of hours of work and money. And there is no guarantee of the result. And even if someone has an infinite amount of money, competent people are still needed to implement projects, and you can’t find them even with fire.
People do their own thing, have limited resources. No one goes and looks for ways to achieve results if these results require work. But there are many who want to achieve results without work. And that is why sales of goods and services that promise instant profit flourish. But in reality, this does not happen (with rare exceptions).
By the way, a year after the publication of that instruction, both Diablo 3 auctions were closed by the developers along with the forums, and my golden “capital” turned into a pumpkin.
The story about Diablo is a beautiful illustration. My main profession is interface design (UX design). And I have also published a huge number of training materials on this topic. In particular, on how to make prototypes in Axure. And since then, in my freelance work, I have never crossed paths with a designer who would try to copy my approach. People solve some of their small local problems with the help of my materials, thank me and move on.
So, why am I not afraid to create competitors when I share valuable information related to the profession? Because valuable information itself is not enough to create a competitor. And if I already have competitors, then they are unlikely to change their processes and habits after hearing my stories. And if they do, then at that moment I will still be several steps ahead 🙂
But there are several advantages to distributing valuable information:
When I talk about something in retrospect, I put things in order in my head. Plus, to explain something to others, sometimes I have to brush up on my own basic knowledge.
I increase my recognition and trust level among readers when I talk about something really practical and useful. Most often, these are stories about what I have already done myself and share the process and the result (and not advice like “do it this way – and you will be happy”)
Many honest professional tips show how difficult my profession really is. And some readers who tried to solve their problems with the help of my materials came to the conclusion that it was easier to contact the author and pay with money rather than with their own time
It also happened that newcomers who were studying using my materials were given a task to work on that they thought was beyond their capabilities – and they recommended me (since at that time I was the “familiar” person who shared his experience through texts and videos and introduced them to the profession)
I feel good when I share my knowledge. As if I am adding to some virtual contribution that is not expressed in money, but is no less valuable. I am sure many here will understand me
Useful links:
My The Book of a Normal Freelancer. Free. I don't teach life, but I tell what I did as a freelancer myself and what came out of it.
Well, that's mine too. Telegram channelIt's about freelancing and interface design.
