May 14, 2025–What value do you bring?
I’ve posited before that the key to success is maximizing your energy level. That is, recognize when during the day you feel the most energy; consume the food that creates the most energy, and discard relationships and activities that drain your energy.
Lately I’ve been looking at life through the lens of value. Traditionally, when it comes to our vocation, we are primed to think in terms of time (hours at work), money (wages), or seniority (years on the job).
But what defines our worth as living beings is the value we bring into the world, that would not exist if we did not exist. I’m not just talking about work. It also includes value to…
…your partners?
…your friends?
…your community?
…people you’ve never met?
Back in the office, we all have left positions, only to replaced by two people to do your job after your employer realized how much work you did.
That shows that value is difficult to measure. The problem? There is no objective means to judge value, or even recognize it.
I once lost an account for whom I was doing a very successful job of marketing. They didn’t give me a reason. Curious, I carefully analyzed all the data covering six years, showing them that the value I brought in sales was several times what they paid me and significantly higher than firms before and after. It didn’t make them reconsider. It was a painful lesson to me that facts on a spreadsheet were not convincing. I finally realized that my mistake was in not figuring out what they valued. Obviously it wasn’t increased net revenue.
My dad, who sold TVs, musical instruments, real estate, and horses, said the secret was to figure out what the buyer valued most. It was one of three things: the total cost of the product, the monthly payments, or the interest rate. Once he knew what motivated the buyer, he knew how to make the sale.
Now I believe each day is filled with equations of value. It can be on a task level, as in what value do I bring to this mundane job of cutting the grass? It can be on a relationship level. It can be on an employment level.
It can be on an existential level. What value do I put out into the world just by my being part of it? That doesn’t need to be on a grand scale such as establishing a colony on Pluto or inventing a perpetual motion machine. That is beyond the grasp of mortals (on the other hand, why not try?)
But it can be as circumscribed as adding value to your community, your quilting circle, or your book club discussion group.
What I like about this model of reality–and all views of reality are models, since reality does not exist–is that it switches the focus from “what am I getting” or “why am I the victim,” to “what value can I add, how do I do that, and what do I need to do next to make it happen?”
That has become my filter on every interaction: Both parties should recognize and acknowledge what value they each bring.