What's your worth?

“I’m waiting for the big so what? She says. “My business is still struggling”.

I’ve been teaching, telling the story of ‘the Chicken farmer – my vignette that is a short and fast way of explaining the difference between wealth, value and fiat money and how using the same dimension for the latter two is the cause of the beginning of the end of market capitalism and the rise of programmable central bank digital currencies.

The first insight of the vignette is that although the chicken farmer’s wealth stays pretty fixed, at a clutch of chickens and a small hut, the value of the hut keeps rising as more people seek to buy it and banks get more willing to lend for mortgages to purchase property.

I reply, “What did we learn about who decides the value of the hut? Is it the owner, you or someone else?

“The buyer”, she replies of course.

So why would a stranger come along and give you money?

“Perfect!”” I reply and ask, “So why would a stranger come along and give you money?

“Because they get the hut”. She replies.

 Exactly strangers will give you money in exchange for tangibles, Anything else?

“What do you do in your business again?”

“We help people…”

Rudely, I cut across her and say, “Aha! So they give you money for help as answers to the questions they have or a helping hand – I call that informatised services.”

“True“. she agrees.

“Any other reason a random stranger would give you money?”

There is a pause. 

Who decides the value? A stranger.

I widen the question, “Ideas from anyone else. Begin by telling us what your business or industry does”.

“Well I’m in insurance and we indemnify people’s affairs”

“Bingo!” I reply, “Strangers will give you money in exchange for risk removal or to reduce the chances of the loss of money”.

There is another lull. 

“Yesterday was hot.  I went round the shops in search of a new T-shirt. There were several on offer. The cheapest was about a fiver. It was a plain colour and felt well made. The most expensive on sale was practically the same colour but had a small, inch square, embroidered image of a rhinoceros and that one cost one hundred and twenty bucks! So I figured, no rhinoceros - a fiver, with rhinoceros  - a hundred and twenty pounds therefore the small embroidered rhinoceros must cost a hundred and fifteen pounds!”

There is laughter.

“What? What?” I ask mock innocently. “Of course not. The strangers value the aura recognition and bragging rights of the rhinoceros so much they will give you an extra hundred bucks!

“Final reason?” I ask. Then I remember the organiser of the event had been telling me about earlier about how their most recent promotion. Complaining that it had not yielded a single call! I mention this to the group.

She sighs an answer, “Of course strangers will pay for access, access to someone else’s attention or to get their time”.

We get so used to what we offer to our customers that we forget that perhaps those who like us a lot, like us because we are giving away for free something that they would willingly give us money. Perhaps you are totally reliable compared to competitors but your prices don’t reflect that you are selling risk removal, or perhaps you provide lots of free informatised services to accompany tangibles you sell at a similar price to competitors…”

My voice tails off to give them all time to think

“The big so what is to ask yourself ‘When was the last time you took a look at what you offer to see if you are getting strangers to give you money for all five reasons?’”

END

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