Tag: value

Expecting it for free

Posted on by philipdodson


The problem with the culture of many startups, freelancers and entrepreneurs expecting other people’s services for free are twofold.

One, you are devaluing someone else’s services and unlikely to build a good relationship and they are unlikely to focus on you as a cherished customer. Over time, the goodwill fades and they feel taken advantage of and resent it.

Second, it will come back to bite you, as the support of this culture will lead to others expecting the same from you.

It is a spiralling race to the bottom for all concerned where everything becomes devalued.

Pay people a fair value for their work. Bartering and a fair exchange of services are completely different, as are genuine one-off acts of generosity where someone offers to help for nothing in return.

Income versus value

Posted on by philipdodson

Income is what you get in return for creating value for others.

Value only comes to us when we create it for ourselves.

That’s the difference between working in a job and choosing ourselves.

Short-term doing a job and getting an income seems much safer and appealing until you realise you can get fired from your job and all the value you create goes to others.

Choosing ourselves is initially hard, it means taking a leap of faith, however, as you build value and realise it is yours it becomes a lot easier.

Also, who fires themselves?

Hard as this is, to really fulfil our purpose, we have to choose ourselves and build something others will value and miss if you didn’t do it. That will not come from an income.