There once was a man that hated his job but loved life. Every day he will get up thirsting for his freedom. He did not want to sleep because he was excited to enjoy what ever free time he had. He dreamed of being extremely wealthy but was frustrated that he was not making progress. He kept saying I need to get smarter. I need to read more books and then it will all click. I will have that one brilliant idea and will lead me to wealth. He kept toiling away, but nothing happened. He soon became despondent and hated everything, he was doing what he is supposed to, but nothing ever clicked. If I am so smart if I have acquired so much knowledge why am I not rich yet? he asked himself repeatedly.
One day he was thinking about how all the books he has ever read, the authors kept saying you have to provide value. They kept throwing out you need to give value but never really explained what it meant. Then he got angry and said I need to give my all and commit to making more money, he started focusing on every possible way he could generate income, he started getting angry at his job and his employer because he felt as if he was underpaid, he said he was providing so much value why no more increases directed towards him. Get more money, he was following the principle of provide more value was he not?
Anger drove him to say, you know what they will only get what they paid for. He stopped putting in a lot of effort, not doing anything that was more than what he got paid for. In a few months, the quality of everything he did dropped because he only focused on doing what was being compensated. He started spending more to feel the rewards of the money he earned. He was clearing out his bank account month after month spending the money on distractions and women. Not saving anymore, still not satisfied he started becoming more and more upset. Why is nothing working out for me, it was a wake call when he looked at his bank account and saw that he was living check to check and that he needed his job to now survive. Before he could quit and still be fine for 8 months. This brought even more frustration, he felt trapped.
Out of this frustration he decided he was going to choose a couple tasks everyday that will add some control to his life. After doing these tasks for a while he started realizing that doing tasks for free for self-satisfaction was more fulfilling rather than only thinking about money. That is when it hit him, what focusing on value really meant, it meant to put effort into creating and producing value that other people will deem beneficia. Prioritize this over everything else and people will gravitate towards you, they will even pay you to keep you around. When he realized that, everything else started working out better, he started focusing on commitment which is most important part of everything, when you commit to the right things everything lines up. Commit to the truth, commit to process, and commit to value and quality.
You have to realize that people do not care about what you think is valuable or what you consider to be valuable. They want what makes their lives easier or better. Yes, you can create products that serve needs they haven’t even thought about but it needs to do provide value for them. Focus on who you can help.
