Offering value

What would happen if you stood in the middle of a busy shopping center and offered to give a $10 bill to anyone who walked up to you in exchange for a $5 bill? Would anyone take you up on that offer? Absolutely! In fact, in a short time you’d have a massive crowd on your hands, with each person eager to give you $5 in exchange for $10.

Does that sound like a ridiculous, money-losing proposition? Sure, it would be crazy to give lots of people a $10 bill in exchange for a $5 bill. The point is, however, that you’d have plenty of people who would take you up on the offer. Even in a bad economy. Especially in a bad economy. Even in an area where unemployment is high. There would be no shortage of people willing to hand you a $5 bill if you handed them back a $10 bill. The problem, of course, is that you’d soon run out of money doing this.

Imagine, though, that you could offer to sell people something for $5 that was clearly worth at least $10 to them, but which only cost you $2.50. You could do that all day long, and at the end of the day you’d have a big profit. And so you could continue doing it as long as you wanted. Even in a bad economy. Even where unemployment is high. There would be no shortage of customers, and there would be no limit to the profit you could make.

Does that sound impossible? Actually, it’s done all the time by successful businesses and individuals. Look at Groupon, for example. That’s exactly what they do.

When you hear of a corporate CEO who is making $500,000 a year, that sounds like an unbelievably huge salary. It seems as if guy is really sticking it to the customers and stockholders of the company. Actually, though, his experience, his expertise and his connections are probably worth much, much more to the company than what he is being paid. The company is getting several million dollars worth of talent, that adds real money to their bottom line, in exchange for just half a million dollars. The directors of the company would be crazy not to do it.

Or what about a pro football player who makes $10 million a year, or an actress who makes $15 million for appearing in a film? Those people are paid that much because they bring in plenty of revenue to cover the cost, plus a whole lot more. If you’re producing a film, would you prefer to pay $15 million to Sandra Bullock and have a film that earns $100 million in profit or would you rather pay $150,000 to an unknown actress and end up with a film that loses money?

What does all this mean to you? It means that the most reliable, repeatable, sustainable way to receive the value you desire (whether it is money or anything else), is to offer real and substantial value in return. In good times and in hard times, there is always a market for value. You may not have the executive ability to earn a million dollars a year as a CEO, and you may not have the athletic ability to earn $5 million as a football player. Yet there are many valuable things you can offer to others, that they would be happy to pay you for. Figure out what they are, figure out who could benefit from them, and get busy creating great value in your own life and in the world.