Why Money Should Never Be Your Goal
“I wish everyone could get rich and famous and have everything they ever dreamed of so they would know that’s not the answer. “
– Jim Carrey
We provide products and services, hang up a price tag and sell to whoever is willing to pay the money. The more people who buy, the more money we’ll make; and more money we make, the bigger our profits, so we’ll become successful, right?
Nope. Sounds logical but it doesn’t work that way. In fact, when you get down to it, the reverse is true. The more successful you are, the more money you’ll make. I’ll tell you why.
Being successful has nothing to do with making money. It has everything to do with creating value. Value has nothing to do with money, but everything to do with creating successful experiences for everyone around you.
In other words, if you’re only in business to make money, it won’t happen; but if the goal of your business is to be successful you likely will be. It’s a shift in perspective, but a necessary one.
So the question becomes are you a dime a dozen business out to make a buck, or do set your sights at achieving success by creating value?
Value is a complex word. It represents both what’s tangible and what’s intangible. We define it as the regard something is held to deserve. We equate it with importance or worth, significance, benefit or usefulness. But it’s also used to define the price or cost of something. We compare how much we pay for item compared to the price paid and determine whether or not it’s a good value. In both cases, in means different things to different people. The value of your business, too, means different things to different people, and how they respond to you doesn’t depend on the product you sell, but the product they believe they’ll be getting when they buy it from you. It’s a feeling. It’s personal. It’s not something that’s purchased ‘off the rack,’ but rather custom fit to their individual needs. You’re the tailor. You need to do the work.
Businesses who make money their primary goal and cast a wide net, tend to win the least customers at the greatest marketing expense. That’s because they’re following their own agendas at the cost of their customers. Customers are smart. They sense the difference immediately. The reality is, when businesses set their sights on their own goals, rather than their customers’, they end up solving no one’s problem, and waste their profits in the process. Consequently, because their customers become commodities, their customers come to regard them in the same light. When only a dollar sign is involved, businesses become expendable. Vital, successful businesses give their customers a reason to come back. Granted, there are some businesses who sell products to people who don’t mind being treated like commodities, and some haven even made money from it. But they’re never satisfied you see, because they never achieve the feeling of success they thought would come once they had some money. Money by itself holds no value and even less satisfaction.
Success is another word that’s difficult to describe. It may be defined simply as the achievement of a goal, but it’s abstract because we all define it in terms of ourselves – and it’s generally a feeling – a belief – an attitude – behavior. When businesses focus on creating successful experiences, everyone profits.
I suggest that businesses make success their goal, and benchmark their progress by the number of people they’ve provided value to on a daily basis.
The more positive energy and appreciation you garner for your business, the more successful you’ll become and the more you will profit.