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If one can chase a thousand, two can chase ten thousand. If you think that ‘math is not mathing’ like the kids say, then you have not experienced the compounding power of unity and collaboration. We are surrounded by very successful companies that were built through collaboration and partnerships. Microsoft had Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Apple had Steve Jobs and Stephen Gary Wozniak. Lawrence Edward Page and Sergey Bringave us Google. And that’s just the big ones, the business beasts of our time.
The tower of Babel had a people resolved to reach God, maybe they hoped to knock on His door to trick or treat. We will never know what they could have done after getting to the pearly gates. Marriage is built on partnership and collaboration without which some of the benefits we have heard it to carry would have no living testimonies.
Likewise collaborative writing is not a foreign concept. One of the best examples of collaborative writing is in music. An artiste will think up a song, no words yet maybe. A producer will make up a beat with no one to ‘talk on it.’ After brainstorms and pondering for hours or days, as if line by line, a song will start coming together. The producer will find the artiste and the artiste will find the words from a point of inspiration starting from deep within to the myriad of sources without. A point comes when, in the panel-beatings and trimmings of the song, a third party is needed. If it is a hit or a banger you seek, sometimes you have to share. The song will be sent to an ‘Eminem’ or a ‘Mowzey’ who will knock it out of the park in what seems like a jiffy. It looks like sped-up gold mining. Several tweaks and cut later, a banger is born from the mating of magic.
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What this does, even for blogging, is that when someone adds their name and prowess to a project, it gives it credence. When choosing to collaborate, get a person that brings a newness and freshness to the work at hand, a different edge and angle or a bag of expertise. If two people are the same all through, one of them is unnecessary.
When you partner up, you bring two separate worlds together. Behind every writer is a clan or a cult. It does not matter how small it is, what matters is that exists. There was a time when you, the writer, existed with only your ideas in your mind. Multiple encouragements and a lot of self-will and belief, you have a people that look forward to what you put out whenever you do. If you want to grow that or reach even more, get someone with their own clan to sound the bell for assembly through a shared project.
To eat for a lifetime, you learn to fish as wisdom dictates. Writers brood over projects without making headway because of embraced limitations like a block in creativity. We can debate the veracity later. That’s the perfect time to collaborate. Find you a person that seems to be wading through the storm you are battling and tag on their heel. Learn from each other and thereby grow. Exchange best practices, insights, frustrations, styles et cetera and see yourself move and live to fight another monster.
As with all ventures that involve more than one person, there is bound to be a little resistance. It could be the difference in creative process or opinion on a subject matter, work ethics and styles, assigning credit or even who covers the monies for what. When entering collaborations, ready yourself for these by understanding what you are bringing to it and want from it plus who you’re jumping into bed with and their expectations. Have clear lines of communications, define who does what by when and leave the how to how they please. If it is called for, write these down and formalize your partnership so that when the devil goes to work, that’s the standard you raise against him.
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There has to be a level of respect and trust for each other in order to collaborate. There must be a reverence for what each one carries because what you disregard cannot nourish you. Let this be your lingering thought if it is not already – you are a Jobs, who is your Woz?