Five Ways to Share Your Skills and Help Others
Renowned American physicist Robert Noyce once said: “Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.” Noyce, also the co-founder of Intel Corporation rightly highlights the importance of sharing your skills with others.
I believe all of us have innate or inborn skills that are simply waiting to be unleashed. Usually, most successful people in the world, regardless of whether they’re rich or just ordinary folk, use these innate skills. That’s what makes them happy. The pursuit of money doesn’t figure on top of their priorities.
Over the years, I have also found that sharing skills gives joy, unlike any other act. For example, giving to a charity helps people for a short while. In stark contrast, sharing skills with someone can genuinely make a difference in their lives.
As Moses de Maimon, a Jewish philosopher, better known as Maimonides says: “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”
As a Torah expert, Maimonides was also speaking about the spiritual angle of sharing skills. Because sharing is something that most religions encourage.
So how does someone share skills? We’re all busy with our day-to-day lives, earning a living and eking an existence on Planet Earth. But if you’re willing, there is always some way. Helping others by sharing my skills is something that brings me immense joy, hence I have shared 5 ways that you can share your skills:
1. Volunteering
Volunteering is something I enjoy. Especially when I’m volunteering to teach a skill that could help underprivileged people overcome something they struggle with or skills that would enable them to lead an independent life.
If you’re looking for a place to start helping others by sharing your skills, give volunteering a try. Spiritual instructor, Elizabeth Andrew says: “Volunteers don’t necessarily have the time. They have a heart.”
We might not have the time, but if we have the inclination and do believe our skills can make a difference, it’s time to look at volunteering. When you volunteer to share skills, you could be making a positive difference in someone’s life.
2. Online Tutoring
We love the Internet age. Even if you are short on time, the Internet enables you to still make a difference by sharing your skills. How? It’s actually fairly simple. Try creating online tutorials and uploading them to relevant websites. It isn’t necessary to be an Ivy League college graduate to share skills through online tutoring. Your will to share skills and some daily effort is sufficient. It’s as simple as starting by creating short tutorials about a skill you are proficient in, and from there you can slowly start to expand outwards.
Here I remember these famous words by American evangelist, Billy Graham who says: “We’re not cisterns made for hoarding. We’re channels made for sharing.” Obviously, what good is any skill if someone decides on hoarding it? The skill would die along with the person that hoards it and is not able to be passed on from generation to generation.
3. Blogging
Blogging is yet another way to help others by sharing your skills. The beauty of blogging is that it is not limited to your professional knowledge. There are an estimated 550 million blogs worldwide on a diverse range of subjects such as collecting stamps and coins to making money, life in outer space to cooking exotic dishes.
You can easily open a free blog on websites such as Blogger.com or Wix.com and write about anything that interests you. Alongside providing a platform for sharing skills, blogs can also be used to help create additional income. American actor, Leonard Nimoy, better known as ‘Mr. Spock’ for his role in the popular movie and TV serial Star Trek says: “The miracle is this. The more you share, the more you have.” Blogging can also work this way, and the additional income can encourage you to continue to share your skills. If this path is something you are interested in, don’t forget to read these two articles on how to create a blog. The first is written by Pritam Nagrale of MoneyConnexion and the second is written by Osman of CodeofLiving.
4. YouTube
Making interesting and timely videos and uploading them on a free YouTube channel is another way you can help others by sharing your skills. Just in case you’re unaware, anyone can open a free channel on YouTube and upload videos. You can promote these videos through your Facebook account and get people to subscribe to the channel. Creating YouTube videos is also another way to make money if your channel contains videos that can help others with something.
“The more you teach positive ideas to others, the better you learn them yourself,” says one of the most famous American motivational speakers, Brian Tracy. Regardless of whether you decide to make money by YouTubing or not, teaching others can positively impact your life too.
5. Joining Support Groups
You can help others by sharing skills by joining a support group. A support group is all about sharing skills. They can help people learn from one another’s experience and better deal with their problems. Skills you acquire in coping with a personal tragedy can be very helpful for someone who may be going through something similar now.
American author and motivational speaker, Leo Buscaglia says: “Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift to God.” And what better gift to that divine power than sharing that talent or skill with others? As I mentioned earlier, sharing is a tenet that all religions have in common.
Conclusion
Before concluding, I’ll share a personal experience. I’ve found that no skill is too small or too large to share. You’ll be amazed at the number of people you can help by sharing any skill. When you share your skill, you empower people to become better versions of themselves. In return, you become a better person too.
