Be a giver and world will give you back
Let's understand why successful entrepreneurs share knowledge and help others. Learn how giving creates business opportunities, stronger teams, and compound growth.
Most entrepreneurs believe their competitive advantage lies in what they keep secret. They're wrong.
The startups that dominate their markets don't win by hoarding information — they win by giving it away strategically. While competitors guard their playbooks, the smartest founders are sharing theirs, creating something far more valuable than secrecy: trust, influence, and networks that compound exponentially.
Consider Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn's founder. Instead of keeping his network-building strategies secret, he wrote books, gave speeches, and mentored countless entrepreneurs on relationship building. His openness didn't hurt LinkedIn — it positioned him as the authority on professional networking, making LinkedIn the obvious choice for serious professionals.
This comes down to understanding a business dynamic that most entrepreneurs miss entirely.
The Information Hoarding Trap
The conventional wisdom says to keep your methods secret, protect your competitive advantage, and never give competitors an edge. But honestly, it’s destroying startups.
Here's what actually happens when you follow this advice: you end up isolated, struggling to find partners, and fighting for every customer while your generous competitors build ecosystems around themselves.
Research shows that 70% of small businesses that received mentoring survived more than five years — double the survival rate of non-mentored businesses. The benefits flow both ways. The companies that survive longest are receiving help and they're giving it with best of their ability.
When you hoard information, you signal scarcity thinking. When you share strategically, you signal abundance and expertise. The second approach attracts better opportunities, talent, and partnerships.
Why Giving Away Secrets Builds Monopolies
The most counterintuitive truth in business: the more you give away, the more defensible your position becomes.
When you share your knowledge, four things happen that create competitive advantages:
You establish thought leadership before competitors realize there's a game to play. People remember who taught them something valuable. When they need solutions, partnerships, or referrals, your name comes up first.
You attract higher-quality opportunities. Generous founders tend to know other generous founders. The best business opportunities circulate through informal networks of people who help each other.
You build faster feedback loops. Teaching forces you to clarify your thinking. Helping others solve problems exposes you to edge cases and solutions you'd never discover in isolation.
You create psychological switching costs. Once someone learns from you, they're invested in your success. They become advocates, not just customers.
I’ve been following Harsh Pokharna (Founder of OkCredit) from almost a month now. I keep seeing stories helping other founders and he shares a wealth of valuable insights. He had around 3k followers on instagram and now he’s at 38k in couple of weeks. That’s the power of sharing and helping others.
When Information Hoarding Makes Sense
Smart founders don't share everything. They share strategically.
Never share: Specific customer data, sensitive information, detailed financial metrics, or anything that could help competitors poach clients or undercut pricing. Your integrity is the best indicator of your character.
Always share: Frameworks, lessons learned, industry insights, and general methodologies. This information becomes more valuable when widely adopted because it positions you as the originator.
Most entrepreneurs err too far toward secrecy. They keep quiet about lessons that could help dozens of other founders while providing zero competitive advantage to their actual business.
Generous founders build different kinds of businesses entirely. While competitors fight over customers, generous founders have customers coming to them through referrals. While competitors struggle to hire, generous founders have talented people reaching out because they want to work with someone they respect.
When economic downturns hit, generous founders have networks that help them weather storms. When opportunities arise, they're the first people their contacts think of.
Start small. Share one thing you learned this week that could help another entrepreneur. Make one introduction that could benefit both parties. Answer one question from someone who's struggling with something you've figured out.
Strategic generosity is a good karma and good business. I’m ready to learn what you know. Keep sharing.
Cheers!
If you’re interested in reading more, here are some interesting blogs:
