The Fine Line Between Inspiration and Imitation

 
Several months ago, I saw an ezine which looked very similar to mine – same format, same dots, etc.  I sent a note to the publisher and she said “I loved the design of your ezine so I gave it to my graphic designer and asked her to recreate it for me.” 

A couple of months ago, I was speaking with a client who said to me “Sandy, I love your passion about what you do and the way you teach it makes everything so easy, it’s infectious. . .I’m going to rebrand and become a marketing strategist too.” 

And a few weeks ago, I started getting emails from clients telling me that an alumni of my Create Your Best Year Ever program has taken my proprietary spreadsheets and templates, reformatted them and is now offering a program “designed to help you have your best year ever in 2011” and is claiming that she’s “never seen anyone tie marketing activities and revenue generation together” before her program. 

Seriously? 

There’s a fine line between being inspired by someone’s work and imitating it.  The above examples are pure imitation and not only do an injustice to me (or to whomever they're imitating), but to the business owners who are imitating. 

You see, everyone has unique strengths – created from our innate abilities and talents, the unique experiences of our lives and our education and learning. 

Rather than try to become someone else, the key to your business – and personal – success is to tap into your own well of uniqueness, from there, you’re naturally successful and everything is much easier for you.

How to know if you’ve crossed the line. . .

It’s fabulous to be inspired and motivated by someone – take that positive energy, embrace it and use it to fuel your own creativity. . .you're goals will start to manifest themselves almost effortlessly.

Imitation has a completely different energy about it – and your intuition knows when you’ve crossed the line.  Check in with yourself by asking these questions: 

• Am I flipping back to her program, info page, templates, etc. in designing my program?
• Am I giving my designer one source to imitate or am I noticing “this and that” from different places and asking for something which reflects my uniqueness?
• Has anyone said “that reminds me of…”, or have I said that to myself?

The best inventions, successes and biggest leaps in human history come from those who are inspired.  What will you create today?

If inspired, please let me know your thoughts below. . .  :-)

Comments

[Leah]

Hi Sandy....this is a great post.
You are so right when you say that everyone has their own unique strengths....and I will add their own unique ability to communicate those strengths. I think that the sad part is that lots of people don't know how to tap into that voice so they imitate other people who's work they resonate with rather then discover their own.

Keep the good stuff coming.
Leah

[Sandra Martini]

Hey Leah,

That's exactly it! Not only do we all have our own unique strengths and abilities, but our own way of communicating them and, using the right strategies, our ideal clients resonate with those strengths and our message.

You and DefyTheBox.com are perfect examples of successfully using your strengths to build a business as you positively impact your ideal clients.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

With love and abundance,

Sandy :-)

[Anese]

Ah Sandy! I'm always inspired by you and your no nonsense lovin attitude. The invitation to check the intuition on what's inspiration and what's imitation, is good stuff. I think, and I'm not speaking for anyone here, but believe this to be true ;-), that often people start in a pure place of inspiration, but jump on the slippery slope which leads to imitation - a fine line no less. Years ago I had one of my websites copied word for word...down to the navigation and even the typos (bless them - the typos were rampant, the site wasn't even that good, and I actually offered to let them just buy the content - typos and all ;-) - once we'd discovered the copycat site!) It started with sincere inspiration on the business owner's part, then moved to imitation on her designer's part (out of which, at that point, became poor ethics on the designer's judgment.) The business owner didn't even realize it had moved to imitation (I do believe this), and the day I called her to get curious about what'd happened, she took it down. My learning from that was 1) to get curious before furious, 2) to check myself before I assumed what happened for her, and 3) a new awareness of the responsibility we have as business owner's to make sure we stay in touch with "inspiration" on our team. So what I'd add to your great post is the invitation to: as a business owner, when inspired, and when you point someone from your team (ie. designer or creator) to "take inspiration" from someone else's work...to stay in touch with where that inspiration actually goes. Check in and make sure that inspiration doesn't cross the line to imitation. I found, with this entrepreneur that it was an honest mistake, the place she "fell down" was in actually making sure her designer operated with integrity - both for her company, with me, and really as a community in our profession. Three sayings come to mind: "there's only one you, be the best you you can be".. and two, "imitation is the highest form of flattery", and 3) "as a business leader, direct inspiration for your team AND see it through; make sure they have what they need and that inspiration only fuels the energy for doing better work to build on for your company." (okay, I made that one up.) Thanks again, for the "out-loud-laugh" on yet another honest post and for inviting yet another perspective in this lovely adventure we call creative entrepreneurship!

[Monica Dennis]

I was inspired to FINALLY work on my vision board! I'm feeling my mojo slowly re-awaken and that will be a great activity to help bring me back to alert mode.

[Carol Hess]

Yes, Sandy, I echo Leah about you being right on the money with suggesting intuition be one's guide when it comes to determining the difference between inspiration and imitation.

Thanks, Anese, for the "get curious before furious" insight. I'll remember that if I ever find myself in Sandy's shoes.

I'm a writing coach, and I encourage my clients to create "swipe" files of writing that inspires them and which they can model for their own writing. (Especially great for sales pages, website copy, fending off writer's block.)

But I get nervous every time I suggest swipe files, because I know there is a fine line between inspiration/modeling and imitation/plaigarizing (or however you spell that).

When in doubt, don't.

[Bonnie Hutchinson]

Thanks, Sandy, for your usual directness, and for adding "intuition" to the filters. I also really appreciated your bigger point about how, though we can all be inspired by others, we each need to discover our own unique gifts and voice.

[anita]

Awesome post, Sandy. I think there is an opposite extreme where someone feels like they can't write out of fear of being accused of duplication or plagiarism. That used to be my fear of writing (although I'm still not a fan), then I realized that many people say the same thing. There is a Scripture that says 'there is nothing new under the sun'. As you said, it goes back to communicating information in a way that is uniquely you and being who you truly are. The problem then lies with the fact that so many people have lost touch with their authentic self, so they have no clue who THEY really are. Because of that, they only know to mimic someone else. One of things I love to do is to help women reconnect with the person in the mirror. I do that because I've lost myself before and it is a miserable existence. Never-the-less, when it comes to inspiration versus imitation, I say, "check yourself before you wreck yourself" trying to be someone that you are NOT!!

[Oma Edoja]

Great post and comments!

It is for this very reason that I have a section in my client-attraction system that focuses on finding out who your authentic self is. As previous posters have said, many of us get so busy with life that we lose touch with who we really are.

When you are clear about your own identity, values and goals you will not want to "be someone else," you will want everything about you to reflect you!

In addition, I would like to echo Thomas Leonard of Coachville. He said to expose one's self to a broad range of influences. Read widely, mix with lots of different people, do things out of the ordinary. This way, you stock up on a wide variety of experiences and resources and this fuels your creativity. Then there'll be no need to copy anyone else! You'll simply be bursting with ideas!

[Shannon Cherry]

Go Sandy.

Although I believe there are no original ideas, steal other people's work without 1)asking and/or 2) giving credit.

For example, I am always saying, "Suck it up, Cupcake." And ALWAYS credit you for that. ALWAYS.

And for the people who do steal (You were kind saying it was imitation), they will be discovered as frauds. Why? Because although they understand the concepts you share, they don't understand the strategies BEHIND it.

Karma, baby... karma.

[Carl Harris]

I have a pal who wants to do lifecoaching but she's worried about people stealing her ideas once she's put them on the internet - I've told her not to worry - they can't steal her.

If we're worried about people using our stuff for their own quick-fix ends it can hold us back from producing the goods altogether.

The truth is if we keep digging into ourselves we'll find more and more resources within to share with others and just keep producing.

It's the willingness to experiment and test our own experience that produces the best ideas and people who take the 'surface' material and use it to their own ends temporarily without understanding they need to reach inside themselves are incapable of taking our overall process away from us.

People can soon tell the difference between the genuine author and a fake when they start interacting with them.