What I Learned From The World of Weed
Recently I interviewed a famous glass artist. Technically he is a famous functional glass artist. To be clearer still, the functional part is that the incredible art that he creates functions as a pipe—for smoking.
Bandu, Sasquatch, Durbin collab
Set aside what’s in your imagination for a second because the functional art glass I’m talking about looked a little something like this Tetsujin Maintenance Station.
Although I would never suggest that these pipes are for smoking anything but legal herbs, truth be told, as part of a project that I’m working on I have been hanging around a lot of stoners lately. Let’s face it, there is a lot we can learn from one of the most burgeoning industries in the country, and I have learned a lot.
Cultural cross-pollination is highly valuable. The power of setting aside preconceived notions and beliefs in order to learn lessons from unexpected places is undeniable. It’s also really hard to do. However, if you set aside whether you’re pro legalization of marijuana or ardently anti, the lessons learned studying this growing ganja counter-culture are astonishingly applicable to your business and your life.
The first lessons I’ll share became obvious when I asked my famous glass artist interviewee whether he sees himself as a master in his field—whether he would call himself an ‘expert’.
His answer was glaringly different from what I heard from other industry gurus. However, his answer was no different from how other glass artists answered this same question. The amazingly talented artist was quick to answer, “No. I will never be a master. I will never be an expert. There is always more to learn.”
That was a refreshingly rare answer for sure, but then he said something that is even rarer to hear from so-called experts in other industries. He said, “There are always new people to collab with. That’s the goal.”
Owned by Sasquatch Glass Collab with Joe Forrestall/603 Glass Woodwork by Jeff Mroz -Wood
Again and again I heard it: collab, collab, collab.
Whenever I asked these artists what they thought of another artist’s work…
“What do you think of his piece? What do you think of his work?”
…the answer was always something like,
“That s**t’s sick. I’d totally want to collab with that guy.”
Sure, with the intense admiration I sometimes heard tiny tinges of envy. But I never saw this admiration breed jealousy, hate, or even a desire to compete as much as I witnessed a desire to collaborate. In this counter-culture industry, the highest goal is to collaborate versus conquer.
In most other industries we see it differently. We compete by attempting to elevate our expert status at the expense of others. We believe that to successfully compete, we must destroy our competition. We do it overtly and subtly. We view as strength this ability to showcase weakness in others
Even in cooperatively competitive industries like real estate, when competitive professionals ethically collaborate, people outside the industry often misinterpret that collaboration for being in cahoots. We’re skeptical about collaboration when we think it’s antithetical to competition.
And yet, with greater and greater access to more people doing increasingly amazing things, the results created by collaboration will very often be more than the sum of the individual parts. I saw it in the awe-inspiring world of glass pipes. My prediction is we’ll see it in our most amazing products and best services in the future.
Collaborate is the new compete.