The Bright Side?!?! Why Yes… There is a bright side to Copy Cats! Let’s define a Copy Cat: denoting an action, typically a crime, carried out in imitation of another’s behavior, dress or ideas.
Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of online content geared towards peoples frustrations with ingenue or non authentic work from others which is a direct replica or very similar to someone’s work. I’ve been there and I definitely know how it feels. I’ve been blogging for almost seven years and been creating custom graphic designs for just about as long. I’ve experienced someone a.k.a a client “not like” a logo I designed, reject it and then tweaked a few things to “make it their own”. Was I livid? Yes, I was! I’ve written blog posts about specific topics and seen it pretty much copied with minor changes on another blog. I’ve had someone that was new to blogging practically copy every single thing they saw me do on my blog to theirs and over time they eventually found their own identity. I went to their blog one day and it was like looking at mine. The layout was similar, same color scheme, and overall duplicate. I was pretty irritated about that but then I stopped to think about it. I had to change my way of thinking. We all know you can’t copyright an idea. Some people’s ideas spark inspiration for others however, you should use the inspiration to create a completely different outcome NOT a carbon copy! It’s very similar to branding. Why would you want to brand yourself after someone else? Your brand should reflect who YOU are.
So, I’ve put a list of inspiring quotes together if you are feeling aggravated, mad and maybe just really pissed off because you may have a copy cat that is intentionally imitating and doing every little thing that you do whether it’s a graphic or web design, blog strategy, social media strategy, photography or even stealing your authentic voice. Well, if someone blatantly scraped your blog post word for word and posts it on their blog with no link back or attribution of any kind. They’ve stolen your blog post and your voice. I’ve seen this happen so many times and that’s honestly why I have a plug-in that doesn’t allow you to copy and paste content on my blog. If you want to scrape my blog post you’ll have to re-type it word for word. Go ahead, try to right click! It says… “Ask and you shall receive!” I’m nice like that! I think asking to re-post content, art or photography is just common courtesy that some people just don’t respect. In the end we can’t control anyone’s actions but our own so don’t worry about what anyone else is doing just keep doing what you’re doing! That was a tongue twister! Continue to BE YOU! Don’t let copy cats get you down. Look at it as a sincere form of flattery. Stay focused and your passion will shine through your work.
As promised here are some quotes to stay positive and get you through those annoying moments…
- “Others can know what you know, but they can NEVER be who you are” – Keith Battle
- “It’s better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation” – Herman Melville
- “In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different” – CoCo Chanel
- “They can imitate your style, but they can’t imitate your creativity.” – Unknown
- “Be Yourself, NOT a copy of someone else” – Unknown
- “Be Yourself, an original is always worth more than a copy.” – Unknown
- “If you set out to be original, prepare to be copied.” – Unknown
- “Don’t hate what you can’t imitate.” – Unknow
- “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken. – Oscar Wilde
Remember… Don’t share your ideas with anyone you don’t really trust. “Be careful who you trust, the devil was once an angel.” – Ziad k. Abdelnour AND… This is one of my favorite proverbs… “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” You know what your journey has been to get where you are. All the hard work, positives, negatives, struggles, sacrifices, relationships, blood, sweat and tears. Don’t let ANYONE take that away from you! Own It! You got this! Now keep authentically creating and DON’T STOP! Have you ever encountered a copy cat? How did you handle the situation? Inquiring minds want to know…