What is value?
I feel confused when I hear people talking about value.
So here are a few thoughts on the matter:
Value feels contextual. My mac has a lot of value to me when sitting at my desk, taking a call with a client.
But has very little value when I want to disconnect and enjoy time in nature.
Where, when, what I am doing, who I am doing it with, all seem to matter a lot.
So it seems like context gives a thing value. But by itself, things don't really have that much value at all. They are just things.
When it comes to my work, I like to think about making products that people value. In business, you're taught to find problems and solve them for other people. That creates value.
But context matters here as well. In one context a problem is valuable, while in another it isn't.
For example, Google Drive has a lot of value when I have files that I want access to during the work week. But has little to no value to me when I am out on a date.
So here's how I think about creating value:
Take what is unenjoyable and go through the process of making it enjoyable.
What is unenjoyable? The context is. The who, what, when, where, and how of it all.
The process of making an unenjoyable context an enjoyable one is the process of creating value.
Your product/service/experiences job is to transform context. What matters is the shift in context.
Here are a few examples of things I find unenjoyable:
- filing taxes and bookkeeping
- business development
- posting on social media
Historically, I have avoided all of these.
But, if I wanted to create value for myself, I could say to myself: "Huh, this is very unenjoyable, why is that so? And how can I make it a bit more enjoyable?"
Hypothesizing answers to this question is useful. It focuses your attention on the specific things that you don't enjoy.
So in my case, I find business development unenjoyable. I ask myself the question. Why is it unenjoyable? How can I make it a bit more enjoyable?
My answer looks like:
- It's unenjoyable because I feel bad about myself when I get rejected
- I can make it more enjoyable by feeling gratitude that I get the chance to offer my help to other people and that rejection helps me find the right people
If you can get to the point where you can make this unenjoyable thing, enjoyable, you would have change the context of the thing your mind, forever.
And if you can do that for others, change context at scale, I think it's fair to say you created a lot of value.
Value in the sense that the old context is lost and a new one is created. An enjoyable one! A valuable one.