On The Three Cs

There are three 'C's I use to describe someone. Those three 'C's are as follows: Consumers, Contributors, and Creators. Think of these as three buckets, with one fitting inside the next. Consumers are the largest bucket, and creators are the smallest bucket. Not everyone fits cleanly and completely in a single bucket, but generally these can describe a facet of a given person's life.

Consumers

This is the bucket most will fall into. These are the people that only consume things, or only consume things in a particular walk of life. They take but they don't give back. They are getting out far more than they are giving.

Thinking in terms of food most people are consumers, not contributors, and definitely not creators. Think those on welfare that also don't have a job and don't contribute to the economy in any positive way. While this isn't inherently bad on a small scale, (the Bible tells us to take care of widows and orphans after all) this is bad on a large scale.

As another example, think social media. There are far more listening ears than there are voices speaking. Part of this is due to platforms and reach and algorithms and whatnot, but the other part of it is that consuming is the easiest thing to do. Get the dopamine hit and move on. Anything else is too much work for too little reward.

Contributors

Everyone consumes at some level, no doubt about that. The thing that separates the consumers from the contributors is the contributors give back in some way. This is the difference between taking or being given something and a trade. With a trade there is an exchange of goods or information. Nothing is being handed out for free.

On the food analogy, these are the people that cook their meal with the ingredients they purchased, not the money they were given (i.e. consumed) from someone else.

On the social media analogy, these would be the people that leave a like, or a comment, the people that repost something on X or share a meme they found. They don't just consume the thing and move on, they give something back and keep the process moving.

Creators

The next bucket are the people that create the things that make consuming and contributing possible.

On the food analogy, what separates a creator from a contributor, is that the creator grew the food being purchased and prepared by the consumers and contributors. To use an economic example, they created the job the contributor is working to pay for the food being purchased.

The creator created the meme the contributor found, liked, and shared to the consumer. They created the video the contributor watched and commented on, or the reel that the consumer watched in the middle of doom scrolling. They created this blog post you are currently reading and will hopefully share.

Conclusion

This is what I've found to be a helpful way to see the world. It's also a good measuring stick to use on yourself. Where are you a consumer and can or should be a contributor? Where are you a contributor when you could be a creator? Don't be content to settle for being a consumer or a contributor. You were made to create, not consume.