What is Value?

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”

Albert Einstein

Have you ever wondered if there’s an underlying principle or mechanism to human affairs? Something that drives our choices and behaviours, and that can bring fortune to those who understand it?

A lens through which you could interpret what happens around you?

After giving it a lot of thought, I realised that there is an underlying principle to our actions.

It is something called value.

What is value? In my research for a meaningful definition I realised it is a simple concept, and yet so important that it informs a wide variety of topics and disciplines, so let’s start with the basic one: the dictionary definition. If you check online dictionaries, you’ll find that the most common definitions are to the tune of:

“Relative worth, merit or importance”

“The importance or worth of something to someone” 

or…

“The quality that renders something desirable or valuable.”

The logical question that follows is: what is the quality that makes something valuable? 

Normally, something is important to us because we need it. If we need something, we want it. If we want something, it’s because we don’t have it. Therefore, that something is scarce. The first important point to make is that the concept of value is directly linked to the concept of scarcity. Which leads us to Economics. Economics is a science devoted to studying how human society uses its limited or scarce resources. In other words, what people do with what they consider valuable. It is normally split into two broad categories: macroeconomics, which deals with the handling of resources on an aggregate level, and microeconomics, which studies businesses and households at an individual level. A business is an organization where people work to create and sell products and services valuable to a certain group of people or businesses, and the people who start businesses are called entrepreneurs. Their role is essentially to provide value for other people, who exchange money for their products and services.

Money is the subject of yet another branch of economics, monetary economics. Specifically, how it’s created, how it circulates, how it grows and how its intrinsic value fluctuates in relation to other types of money, or currencies.

But what is money? Money is a universal, efficient storage of value.

See how it keeps popping up?

People can also use money to buy a part of a business created by an entrepreneur. This is an investment, and for it to be a good investment, they must first – well they should first – figure out a valuation for that business.

How money flows from individuals to businesses, and vice versa, is the topic of finance. It could be argued that finance deals with how stored value moves around. Let’s step away from the economic stuff for a moment and deal with something a little less tangible. On a moral and ethical level, the principles we care for are called values, and if we share them with a large enough group of people, they make up a culture. These values have a significant role in what we do with our time and money and what we buy. They also play a huge part in how we choose and pursue a partner.

I previously mentioned the link between value and scarcity. What is the opposite of scarcity? Abundance, or wealth. Wealth, in my book, is the bountiful possession of things, material and non-material, that have value for us. How do we achieve wealth? By providing value for others in the form of products and services, through entrepreneurship and investments. Value and wealth are inextricably connected. Why, then, are there so many people out there touting systems or secrets to wealth with little or no mention of value creation?

Any strategy or education relevant to WEALTH creation, in my opinion, should have VALUE as the core concept, and that’s why I’ve started this business. I opened this article with a question, and now I’d like to provide my answer.

What is value?

Value is KING.