It never hurts to help

When I was in college there was a cartoon on tv called "Eek the Cat". People asked him for help and he always replied: "It never hurts to help", almost killing himself in the process of helping. I love cartoons, I love Eek. And he taught me a simple lesson: "We are here to help each other". 

Although we are all individuals, we work in teams. We always aim to improve ourselves and the people around us do the same. To achieve improvement we need to share. We need to share knowledge to let other people learn faster, to give them an advantage. It doesn't matter if they gain more knowledge then us, it doesn't matter if they suck up all your information. It only does matter whether they share it or not. The one not sharing isn't a team player, he is what we call a leech, vermin. We don't like vermin, they suck on our information and never repay. Not everything should always be re-payed, it isn't a balance, but a little sharing is already enough.

We benefit from each other, no grudge, no payment, all the fun. When we help people we will feel good. We also know that they learn something, which makes us feel good as well. Helping is not doing something they can't do, doing it for them. Is about what they can't do yet and doing it with them. Helping is showing direction, sharing thoughts, discuss about solutions to a problem. It's better to learn somebody how to put a bandage on, then to bandage all the kids at school on your own. When we teach we learn something about ourselves, about other persons, about opinions of other people. When we teach we open our minds and learn about other cultures and other believes.
And when we learn, we find new paths, we explore the unknown, we learn to understand other beings, other thoughts, other opinions. We see endless possibilities and we become creative. When we open up our minds we create ambition and a goal.

And then there is the collective mind of the team. Never be afraid to ask the team or anybody, when questions are impossible, your team is impossible and you should find yourself a new team asap. The collective mind of the team is the hive where all knowledge resides, not all parts of the truth are stored on one spot. It is scattered around in the individual team members. So if you are confronted with a question, do think about it, do a little research, then ask and share experience. Ask smart questions, some people say there are no dumb questions; that might be true, smart questions do exist, no doubt there. The smart way of asking is important and hard, but everybody can learn it. When you want to ask a question, do research, know what you are talking about, read manuals, websites, papers and so on. Time box yourself on the research part. A small problem should have less research time spent on then a big problem. There is no real measurement, except for the team response. If you don't do your homework the team will excuse you a couple of times at max. But if you do, you will be welcomed with open arms, you will gain kudo's.

Share knowledge, gain and get knowledge; thats how it works. Don't be a leech, people don't like leeches. Gather and share, be equals and help each other to reach your teams common goal. To be helped is important, to help even more!