Don’t work for FREE (video)

I agree 100% with Stephen… enough already! The first thing that came to my mind was the whole MakerBot movement (Thingiverse specifically) and the second, Huffington Post. In the first case “buy our machine, buy our material and share your work for free so others buy our machines and material to print it too” and in the second, “share your comments and stories and we’ll sell it against advertising and you’ll get exposure – and by the way, we’ll sell the company for over a hundred million and keep the money, thanks!”

You work hard designing things, software and hardware aren’t cheap – especially for 3D… try to find ways to monetize it! The best comment on YouTube relating to this video is the following by yeahwrite.

A man brings his car to a mechanic, says something is making a weird sound. The mechanic opens the hood, bangs a part with a hammer, fixes the car, and then charges the man $100. Outraged, the man says, “That cost $100!? You just swung a hammer!” The mechanic replied, “The banging costs a dollar, knowing where to hit costs $99.”

He followed-up with another great video that explains very clearly why I stopped joining competitions – not only are they asking for money up-front but also in the fine print, increasingly – they OWN THE DESIGN. Nuts? Yes… I want no part of it.

As we are on the topic of videos… check this awesome music video… this is passion at its best! Jack blows me away with his talent, he generates all his own sounds that are used in the music he composes! Awesome stuff! He’s also an entrepreneur trying to help other artists generate revenue for their works!