Sharing Is Good: How to Save Money, Time and Resources Through Collaborative Consumption (12 page)

“PepsiCo agreed to give the Soviets soft-drink syrup for Stolichnaya Russian vodka and 10 commercial ships. The
New York Times
reported the agreement was worth $3 billion, and maybe three times

as much when Pepsi sold the vodka retail.” Both companies benefitted immediately from the trade of excess stock, and made inroads

into new markets that would be even more lucrative in the long

term. This same serendipitous scenario is repeated daily in the

global marketplace. The Ormita Commerce Network, a recognized

global trade franchise, estimates that approximately 70 percent of all Fortune 500 companies barter on a regular basis, totaling billions in official non-cash exchanges each year.

Barter, while possibly the most attractive way for businesses to

share, isn’t the only way companies can thrive by sharing. Those willing to reject the entrenched model of “create, sell, collect money, repeat”

find a whole host of new opportunities perfectly suited to the current generation’s desire for something more than the same old consumption. This new model is what entrepreneur and investor Lisa Gansky calls “The Mesh”: an ecosystem of businesses that specialize in shareable products and the use of advanced Web and mobile data networks.

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“Mesh businesses are knotted to each other, and to the world,

in a myriad of ways” writes Gansky. “Some connections are formed

directly, such as an agreement among companies to identify a market and make coordinated offers. These companies share information to facilitate access to new customers, customer preferences, and goods.

Other connections are formed indirectly through third parties…or

via customers’ social networks.”

These companies are interested in meeting the specific needs of

their technologically savvy audience, not in convincing them to buy something they don’t need. Unlike traditional corporations, Mesh

companies refuse to rely on “built-in obsolescence” to ensure repeat customers. Instead, they use transparency, communication, and

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convenience to demonstrate the value of collaborative consumption, and focus on making it as easy as possible for people to share without sacrifice.

Attributes of a Successful Sharer

Sharing may not be new, but adopting a lifestyle centered around

collaborative consumption is still uncharted territory for many of us. To be a good citizen of the sharing economy, you must have an adventurous spirit and be willing to blaze a new and wonderful trail.

The most successful sharers are those who aren’t afraid to be early adopters; they are willing to explore new ways of doing things and share those experiences with the rest of the community.

The exciting thing about this movement is that we’ve never seen

anything like it before. We’re still trying to figure out what a people-centered economy looks like. For some people, not knowing the rules and not being in charge of the process will be nerve-wracking, but we can’t give up. Nothing worth doing has ever been easy. Successful sharers have to be willing to experiment, to try even though it might deliver lackluster results, or even failure. But what’s out there to be gained? Very likely it’s new connections, enjoyable experiences, and the opportunity to relish the thrill of solving a problem without wasting time, energy or money! All of those benefits are out there, just waiting for us, but we have to be willing to take the first step of that unpredictable journey.

Ready for Adventure

Part of developing an adventurous spirit means learning to be flexible. Our consumption-obsessed culture has us trained to think that we are always a customer — and always right. As consumers, we’ve

learned to be selfish, concerned only with our specific wants and desires. Even giving has become self-centered. Just look at what’s happened to the holidays. Advertising tells us that buying things for other people will make them love us more, or make us appear more

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successful, or will just make us feel good about ourselves. It’s become less and less about the recipient and more and more about the buyer (giver). We have the attitudes of emperors rather than the humility of servants. As Annie Leonard points out in “The Story of Change,”

at StoryofStuff.org, we’ve forgotten that we are merely citizens of a world shared with millions of others just like ourselves. We’re used to getting everything “on demand,” right when we want it, as quickly as possible. When you plug into a community of sharers, on the other hand, you need to be patient. You may need to work with other people’s schedules, and, in some cases, take action on a moment’s notice. If you list a need on a peer-to-peer marketplace like Yerdle and someone contacts you with a way to fill it, your response is probably going to be time sensitive. If you’re looking for a ride home for the holidays through a ridesharing service like Ridejoy, you might have to leave at a different time than you had wanted or be willing to take a different route in order to accommodate your fellow travelers.

Being adventurous also means not turning back when things get

hard or seem to go wrong. Where would we be today if Lewis and

Clark had turned back the first time they came to a dangerous river or mountain pass? What would have happened if Jonas Salk decided that three attempts to develop the polio vaccine was enough, and he might as well give up? Even though the sharing economy

has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few years, we’re far from having figured it all out. New ideas about how to build a life around sharing are being born every day. Some of them are brilliant, some aren’t. And some may be just a little ahead of their time.

Although collaborative consumption can deliver so many positive

benefits for our families, communities, and environment, it’s not a silver bullet or a one-size-fits-all solution to everything. Sometimes, sharing services don’t catch on. Sometimes, your peers aren’t interested in attending a community potluck. Sometimes, no one shows

up to a clothing swap. Sometimes, the thing that you rent isn’t as awesome as it looked in the picture.

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Part of being an adventurous sharer means rolling with the

punches and trying to learn whatever lessons there are to be learned, even in failure. My first experience renting a room through Airbnb was a huge success: the hosts picked me up from the airport, the

room looked just like I expected, and we hung out drinking wine on the back porch the first night of my stay. I was thrilled! So, I booked another room when I needed to travel to attend a friend’s wedding.

This time was different. These hosts didn’t offer to pick me up, so I had to rent a car. When I got to the address listed on Airbnb, the house and the neighborhood looked nothing like the pictures, and

the hosts didn’t answer when I called to verify. There I was, lost, in a strange city in the middle of the night. I ended up getting a hotel. It turns out, the address was listed incorrectly on the website. When I got in touch with the hosts the next morning, they were very apolo-getic. They gave me the correct address, I found it without a problem (it was a beautiful house!) and they refunded my money for the first night immediately. I made it to my friend’s wedding without incident, and my hosts set out a great breakfast the next morning. After the first part of that negative experience, I could have decided to go back to the predictable yet boring world of commercial hotels, but I stuck it out and met some great people. Since then, I’ve used Airbnb several times and had more great experiences.

The moral of the story is to remember that we’re all new at this.

There is no perfect way to share. Put on your explorer cap and take some pleasure in the fact that you are forging down the road less traveled. There will be some twists and turns. There may be obstructions in the trail. You just have to adjust your expectations, realize that you’re a part of something bigger than yourself, and try, try, again.

Start Small, Think Big

How many times have you made a New Year’s resolution to make a

big life change, like riding your bike to work or eating more locally produced food, only to find that making good on your promise is

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harder than first anticipated? Humans love to bite off more than

they can chew. We make big plans, claim we’re going to change the world and then — well, life happens. We get busy, distracted, or

remember that no, our garage isn’t big enough to accommodate a mi-crobrewery. Our best chance for success comes when we choose our

changes carefully and start small enough that we can make progress before getting too discouraged.

The same rule applies to participation in the sharing economy.

When I first learned about collaborative consumption, I was initially excited and then slightly overwhelmed by all of the opportunities.

You might feel the same way. And then you might think, how I am

going to remember all of these options? Which type of sharing is

the most important? If I’m not sharing everything, what’s the point?

Take a deep breath. This reaction is normal. It’s because you’re

looking at the entire, massive sharing economy and trying to swallow it all at once. The point is to do
something
not everything. To embark on a successful, shareable lifestyle, start small. Just like when choosing hobbies or New Year’s resolutions, you’ve got to be realistic. Is it realistic to pledge that you’ll never drive your car to work again?

Probably not. But you could probably eliminate one car trip a week.

The same principle applies to sharing, especially when you’re new at it. Can you pledge to barter or swap for every single thing that you or your family members need, starting tomorrow? Nope. But with all

the sharing options that are available around the world and online, chances are there’s a way to participate in the sharing economy that will complement, rather than disrupt, your current way of doing

things. Maybe you travel a lot for business. Choosing to browse

Airbnb listings in your destination city, rather than a hotel reservation website, doesn’t take any extra time or effort on your part, but it’s likely to save you some money and result in a positive experience you’ll want to repeat.

Although it’s a good practice to start small, there’s nothing wrong with
thinking
big. I mean really big. Don’t be fooled, even though 68

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many collaborative consumption services seem like simple common

sense, they’re still pretty revolutionary. When enough people are thinking, talking, and sharing together, amazing things can happen.

When we look to sharing as the obvious choice instead of an awk-

ward alternative, solutions appear and lives are changed.

People at all levels of society have been swept up in the quest to consume more, own more, thinking that their happiness and security can be provided by material goods. Collaborative consumption has the potential to disrupt this lopsided reality without asking people to abandon the activities or people that they care about. We can’t all live in an off-grid eco-commune or make all of our own clothes.

We can’t all drive electric cars or give up our cars altogether. What we all can do, however, is change the way we view the things and the relationships that we already have.

We can start to view our possessions as a type of currency —

things that can be exchanged for other things we need or want. We can start to view our friends, neighbors, and social networks as resources instead of competition. When we acknowledge that we are

all members of the same global community, the consequences of our actions, both good and bad, become clear. We start to feel pride and responsibility for the well-being of the entire group. What happens to one happens to all of us, and the actions of one are a reflection on the entire community.

While trading clothes or sharing a car may seem simple, the net

impact of the sharing economy is far from mundane. Each new per-

son who hears the message of sharing and finds a way to incorporate collaborative consumption into their own lives becomes an example of the serendipity that’s possible when we’re willing to think outside the box. When sharing, or explaining the sharing economy to someone else, it’s important to start small and set realistic expectations.

Don’t restrict the scope of your vision, however. Sharing can be applied to every single area of our lives; the only limits are those we set for ourselves.

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Be Good People

The current economic system focuses on supply and demand, pro-

ducers and consumers. These two sides are locked in a never-ending struggle for domination of the market. Producers lose money when

supply overtakes demand, so they search for ways to entice con-