The Anti-Collaborator Effect
The paradox driving dupe culture
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about "The Collaborator Effect"—how finding the right creative or product partners can be vital to long term success.
Today, I want to explore a paradox that often prevents founders from working with talented collaborators—a widespread phenomenon that affects creators, experts, and businesses across industries.
The Success Paradox
There's a curious dynamic in creative and professional fields: the more successful someone becomes, the more potential clients and collaborators assume they're inaccessible. This leads to fewer opportunities rather than more—a counterintuitive outcome we might call "the success paradox."
The first time I experienced this phenomenon myself was in 2016. I’d just released a creative project that was receiving accolades in international news and magazines, and by then I’d built a very strong creative portfolio working with some of the biggest brands in the world.
Soon after this particular project launched, I visited Facebook HQ. While I was there, an employee saw me and approached. He told me that they had a photoshoot coming up and he wanted to work with me on it, but he wasn’t planning to reach out because he thought it would be “too small for me.”
I remember thinking to myself… Who on earth would be a bigger client than Facebook? And what could possibly make someone think like this?
It turns out that this is a much larger phenomenon, and this manifests in countless ways across industries. Accomplished designers watch as companies use their work on reference boards but hire less experienced talent to execute. Renowned consultants discover clients assumed they were "too expensive" without ever inquiring about rates. Award-winning professionals regularly hear, "We didn't think you'd be interested in our project," often long after the fact.
This paradox creates a disconnect that hurts everyone involved. Companies miss out on working with the talent they truly admire, while accomplished professionals miss opportunities they would have welcomed.
The Psychology Behind the Paradox
Several psychological factors create this barrier between accomplished professionals and potential collaborators.
According to research in social psychology, when people encounter high-status professionals, they often experience intimidation stemming from what psychologists call "status-based rejection concerns." Studies have shown that we're naturally attuned to social hierarchies, and interactions with those perceived as having higher status can trigger anxiety about being judged or rejected. This creates hesitation where there should be communication, with people often choosing avoidance over risking potential rejection.
There's also a persistent myth about what success means professionally. Many assume that once someone reaches a certain level of achievement, they either stop working entirely or only take the most prestigious, highest-paying jobs. This fundamentally misunderstands what drives many professionals. For most successful creatives, it's the act of continually creating and producing that provides fulfillment beyond compensation.
Assumptions about pricing create another barrier. Without checking, people create imaginary pricing structures based solely on someone's reputation or client list. This leads to self-selection out of potential collaborations that might have been mutually beneficial.
Perhaps most pervasive is the cultural narrative that successful people eventually "graduate" from work. There's a collective belief that professional success must lead to early retirement, rather than continued engagement with meaningful or engaging projects.
How This Undermines Innovation
This phenomenon creates a disconnect between the advice in my previous newsletter and the reality we see in the industry. While the value of collaborating with established talents is clear, the psychological barriers to initiating those relationships often seem insurmountable.
The result is what many are calling "dupe culture"—where rather than building relationships with original talent, companies pursue less experienced alternatives to imitate established work. This produces markets flooded with derivative work that lacks the quality and integrity of the original. Everyone loses: the creators, the companies, and ultimately those experiencing the work.
Breaking the Cycle
The way forward requires awareness and action from both sides:
For Founders and Brand Teams:
Question your assumptions about accessibility. Have you actually checked if your dream collaborator is available, or are you making assumptions?
Consider the long-term value of original work versus short-term cost savings from imitations
Understand that many successful professionals are motivated by interesting projects and good collaborations as much as by compensation
Remember that reaching out is low-risk (the worst they can say is no) but high-reward
For Established Professionals:
Be conscious of how you might be perceived as intimidating or inaccessible
Consider ways to signal openness to various types of collaborations
Make your work process and availability more transparent
Create clear pathways for potential clients to engage with you
By breaking down these invisible barriers, we can begin to shift away from a culture of imitation toward one of genuine collaboration. This benefits everyone: companies create better quality work, professionals find more fulfilling opportunities, and the industry as a whole produces more innovative, original content.
Moving Forward
This week, identify one "dream collaborator" you've been hesitant to approach. It could be a designer, photographer, influencer, advisor, or potential team member who seems "out of your league."
Remember the insight from "The Collaborator Effect"—in the beginning, it's all about your collaborators. I’d go a step further and say it’s always about your collaborators. Don't let assumptions about someone's success prevent you from building the relationships that could transform your business.
What "dream collaborator" will you reach out to this week? I'd love to hear how it goes.
Until next time,
Helena