Image by Nattanan Kanchanaprat from Pixabay
[This is an english translation of the original post in slovene: “Šele z razdajanjem postane človek bogat” – “oh, ja”]
“It is not about what or how much we do in life, but with how much LOVE we do anything with.”
Žiga Grušovnik
What happened to good old “quality you pay for”? Are we really fooled by the hunt for everything that is “free”? Will this really fill the void within us? Is that REALLY the point?
On the topic of spending money; about the very act of giving/paying money for [something]: ANYTHING for which we pay an amount for creates more “value” for us compared to when we use or get something for free/without payment. This might sound convoluted, so let’s see what this is really about in the background…
“Free” just doesn’t sell these days…
Let me tell you a little story; describe a real-life incident, a first-hand experience that happened to my mother: one summer she visited a flower shop, twice, about a week apart. On her first visit, she noticed a bunch of sunflowers that looked a bit wilted. On her second visit, just a few days later, all the flowers were sold. To her surprise, she asked the florist how he managed to sell all the flowers in such a short time. He explained to her that the sunflowers didn’t sell so well last season and that the remaining flowers were just a little “droopy,” but the whole plant was perfectly healthy and he didn’t want to throw them away. So he decided to simply give them away. So he freshened them up a bit and put them in a basket with a small inscription “take me 😊”. And to his surprise, not a single flower was taken by the customers! In his astonishment and thinking about what to do with the flowers, he decided to sell them for a symbolic price (€1)… and would you look at that – he sold every last one!
While explaining the story to my mom, he said with a laugh, “people were obviously scared or distrustful, thinking it was some kind of scam when there was no price on the flowers.” OR: they didn’t really know how to recognize value until someone else determined/evaluated it them self, according to their judgment.
It’s more about the experience, than the sum itself…
In this and similar cases, it’s just a matter of perspective, and in our materialistically oriented society today, a fabulous price tag can elicit one of the following responses: either ridicule at worst, or interest at best. These two options are always available!
And I’m also sure that we’ve all dealt with the situation of buying a “cat in a bag”, where we were softened by a flattering offer, only to later realize that we were a little “off” with our perception. Of course, such situations are really annoying and unwanted, but they are nevertheless an important step in learning about our perception of value: it is what we value, how we value and how someone else can use that value to take advantage of us in a negative sense OR to make us an actual favorable offer too, for example.
And it’s true, it can be very unpleasant, and yes, money plays an important role in life, but at the end of the day, it’s just a medium through which we get closer (or further away) from the things/circumstances we really want or need. That’s all. Nothing more, nothing less.
“Value is a measure that cannot be measured uniformly”, mind this.
Žiga Grušovnik
Derek Sivers, a diverse content creator and entrepreneur, describes this topic very well in his book “Your music and people”. (From his site: https://sive.rs/morepay):
- “Psychological experiments have shown that the more people pay for something, the more they tend to value it.”
- “People given a placebo drug in medical trials were on average twice as likely to report pain/symptom relief after being told the drug was expensive.”
- “When people are looking for the ‘best’, they look at the price to tell them what’s good. They even think that more expensive wine tastes better. That more expensive headphones produce better sound. Even if, in the background, these things are actually very similar to cheaper versions.”
The core purpose of this writing is for all the wonderfully creative people out there: don’t be afraid to put a price on your heartfelt, passion-driven products and/or items—it won’t make you “greedy, self-righteous, or demanding.” If anything, it creates even more value. And, based on my first-hand experience and other people’s stories, when that price appropriately reflects your passion and love for the product itself, and thus your personality, your unique vibe, the item WILL sell! Probably to people to whom it reflects the same or similar value. And such folks, we, are more and more connected like that, by the way! 😉💜
If you have an idea of your own, a hobby/business, a project that you would like to share with others, or you simply saw something very creative or practical online, I invite you to share it on our Facebook page and “present” yourself in this way, while (potentially) making new connections with like-minded people (or even starting your own service!) 🤩
Until next time – value yourself and I’ll see/read you at another moment in time. 😇
Moment in time 