Why are so many entrepreneurs insensitive and blind to the needs of the world?
Most are not addressing what we really need to succeed as a species, society or as individuals. At the time of this writing, there are still thousands of businesses flooding the market with products and services that don’t aim at anything but perpetuating a machine that is not made for sustainable success.
People selling large quantities of useless and questionable products are almost immediately copied by other people afraid of missing out on their slice of the pie. There are loads of online courses offering secret formulas for financial reward. For those that are lucky, a business might spring out of it, but it will not be one focused on value. There is very little room for value in businesses that are focused on making a quick buck.
We need something else. Something bigger, more fundamental. Something more natural. Something we are worthy of and that is worthy of us. We have to open our eyes and become aware of what the world really needs. One word, an overused but underrated one- Value.
We need to embrace value creation at every level. As business owners, we must realize that we have the duty and power to bring value into the world. Keeping it to ourselves helps no one. Shared value has offspring, and it brings lasting fulfillment and success to those delivering it.
Many people have a warped understanding of value. The current narrative says it is valuable to support those who are not well-off by offering them goods and other aid. But doing this means keeping them from their growth and independence. No one grows out of poverty, obesity, mental illness or oppression until they are handed the real keys to success- tools that allow them to forge their independence.
These tools are raw value, shaped into form (products and services) by us, the ones who are in the privileged position to offer value.
It is our duty to use our abilities and our resources to create institutions and places that channel and rearrange value so that it becomes usable, easy to digest and relevant to people who need it most.
If we keep true value away from those who it has the potential to make healthier, happier, wiser, wealthier, then we are denying ourselves the magic we are capable of. If we keep limiting ourselves to offering petty products and services to serve our own greed, if we continue to flood the world with resource-eating distractions, we will destroy the thing that is most needed at this time: value designed to promote someone else’s growth.
Are we asleep at the wheel? Are we blind to our power? As business owners we are, first and foremost, artists. And our art is the creation of value. We have a lifetime to perfect our art until we are virtuosi, until all those who seek to become healthier, happier, wiser or wealthier turn to us because they see the value our products and services bring to them. They recognize that we come from a place of value and that their growth is what matters to us. Because of that, they want to be a part of and support the product/service universe we have created for them.
There is no bigger compliment in business.
