What Is It Worth?

A Trip to D.C.

I was in Washington D.C. two weeks ago with my wife (she was on a business trip, so I just tagged along for the ride). I’d been there several years earlier on business myself, but I didn’t have the opportunity to see any of the attractions.

This time it was vacation (for me anyway!) so I went along to the Mall; I visited the Smithsonian Building, the Library of Congress, I saw the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence; amazing things, all of them. Then I went into the National Gallery. Now I’m not much one for art, but my wife suggested I go as she’d been before and really liked it, so I went and I very glad that I did.

Monet etc.

Why? Because I saw some of the most INCOMPETENT “art” that I’ve ever seen!

I saw paintings by Claude Monet, Paul Cezanne, Vincent Van Gogh and Henri Matisse. Some were INCREDIBLE (sorry Paul and Claude, you’re not included); paint applied with incredible skill, stunning subject-matter; superb…………..in MY opinion. Others were obviously painted by a three month old Chimp! (not really, though it DID look like it!).

Worth of Your Stuff

What about your car? Is it worth what you paid for it? Well, my car is worth a LOT more to me than it is to anybody else. I know how reliable it is, what condition it’s in, how much money I’ve spent on it and so on. So what if you took your car to a dealer to sell or trade it in; what do you think HE would give you for it? Yep, you guessed it, a lot LESS than you think it’s worth.

What Would YOU Pay?

But why, you ask, is that I good thing? It made me realize how people value things. Just because I didn’t like something and wouldn’t pay anything for it, doesn’t mean that somebody else wouldn’t.

I want you to think a little more deeply about value and worth. These are both extremely subjective.

Show 50 people an object (wristwatch, pen, an old chair) and ask each of them to write down what they would be prepared to pay for it. You’ll get 50 different amounts, guaranteed!

Value

So where am I going with all this? Well, because everybody values things differently, YOU can benefit from this. How? Very simple; YOU have a vast amount of information inside your head, which you may not realize is WORTH something to other people! Other people might be willing to PAY YOU for that information, and pay you well.

Think about what you know, how difficult or costly the knowledge may have been for you to acquire (in money, time, effort or discomfort) , then think about how you might find OTHERS who would PAY you for that information.

Then SUPPLY it to them!

Do it once, then do it again…………….then you have a business.

Luke