Intellectual Donation or Plagiarism?

Welcome to 2021! Breaking news: People ask your advice for FREE and take advantage of your ideas and knowledge.

While your advice is bringing crazy amounts to someone, you personally are just another invisible hero with no recognition and no benefit, low motivation and feeling the need to take action.

Well this post is for you my fellow League of Contributors invisible hero. I will speak for your dignity and your right to be recognised for your achievements, experience and knowledge. 

At the universities we footnote every sentence, every source, every tiny phrase to show that our research is based on common facts, famous scientific works and other contributors in a field. We did this on every page, in every paragraph - the more sources, the more contributors - the better is your paper’s academic value.  From a simple suggestion grows an idea that needs to be proved to coexist in other similar solutions. We did it in school, in the university and when we started working - we totally wiped it out, and if you don't copyright your ideas or content or even if you do - you my sir, will have a hard time and almost no instrument to protect your intellectual property. 

You could say, so what I helped someone? This make me a bad person if I do it for free? No, but a person who took your advice and saved his/her project/task and did not mention you as a contributor is an evil and horrible human being and will do it again with you or other people. Yes, I identify our intellectual resources as valuable as our material resources. Your intellectual capital is what brings you a pay-check. You sell not hours but your brain cells to corporations/companies. So why do other individuals consider your intellectual property as free to give? Why they have no dignity to recognise your idea/advice/suggestion and not only thank you but publicly praise your contribution. 

I personally helped a lot of companies and individuals with their projects and I was not always rewarded. Many of the people I know, great, talented and absolutely brilliant professionals had the same experience. Thus I start demanding recognition and value my ideas and advice and get paid for consulting rather than receiving just  “THX” .

You can not count on other people's morals and manners, you have to act. These are the ways:

1. Make an article on Linkedin - describe the problem, offer a solution and tag it accurately. Your posts will drag attention and will be valuable to your resume. You also may receive a lot of feedback from other professionals and thus you benefit and also provide a platform for other contributors to be recognised.
2. Consulting services must be paid. If people want your advice or leads or other information which has potential value - take a share. It is OK. People pay even for water, so why do you think you don't deserve to be paid for your experience?
3. Always set personal and professional borders. Just because you have a good relationship with your clients does not mean you give them authority to exploit your time and brain. Respect is earned and is never just given. When you interact with an individual you treat them with dignity and in a respectful manner as this shows your character as a person. And the respect will be reciprocated. You must always behave in a respectful manner as this reflects on you, your character, integrity and values of who you are as a person. Never forgot that your intellectual value needs as much protection as your personal belongings. 

Share your stories below or leave a reaction, thus you encourage others to respect their ideas and create wonderful projects as contributors but not as invisible heroes.

PS: Big round of applause to birbaljha and yorrick hunt from Urban Dictionary for a great title inspired by your definitions. https://www.urbandictionary.com/author.php?author=birbaljha

https://www.urbandictionary.com/author.php?author=yorrick%20hunt