Stream Of Consciousness: Solve Problems

Value is the basis for all monetary exchange in the world. Whenever someone pays another person any kind of money, they do so because they feel the value is worth more than the money they hand over. This is the base for today’s post.

What is value?

Value is a subjective term for the importance of the thing in question. We say something is valuable when we see an inherent use for it in the present or in the future. It is completely dependent on how we see the problem it solves. If it solves a big problem in our lives, then it is more valuable. If it solves a minor problem, we might not see it that valuable to us. The key is: TO US.

This brings us to the equation of value:

Value is created when pain is alleviated.

Whenever a problem is solved, the value of the thing that helped us solve it becomes exponentially more than what we paid for it. We are ready to pay anything to solve the really big problems in our lives. The bigger the pain, the higher the value of the solution.

Based on this, we can now confidently say that the income we make is directly correlated with the problems we solve. This might sound bad to some people. If you don’t make enough money, try to figure out what kind of problem you are solving for people. Chances are, it’s hard to pinpoint what problem exactly you are solving.

Most people don’t think about this in their day-to-day life. We are going through the motions, doing our daily tasks, being kind to others, trying hard to impress our boss. Waiting for that promotion, or winning the lottery, or getting a big pile of money magically. Meanwhile, the biggest problem we are solving in our daily job, is that it would be done by someone else, if we didn’t do it. That’s all the value we bring. A small cog in a big machine.

If your job can be done by anyone else in your team, then you are not creating much value, are you?

Shift your mindset, start to see what brings value to your team, to your boss, to your company, to your customers. See the patterns, see the problems, search for the solutions. It gets easier with time, trust me. As you move forward, you’ll see more problems being solved, and when you piece together the puzzle pieces, you’ll see how to make it better, faster, easier.

I can say from experience, the more value you create, and the more specific skills you have to create that value, the better off you’ll be, even if you are working at a shitty place. Your boss will notice over time, and will be forced to pay you more, or give you other privileges. They can’t lose you now, you are bringing in more value than anyone else in the team.

This means you now get more complex problems to solve, related to the skills you picked up.

Picking up skills is your responsibility. See the problem, search for the solution, create tools to solve them. If you wait for others to show you what to learn, you’ll get exactly as far as everyone else. You need to find your own path, search for tools and skills, and solve the problems. This is how you get ahead.

Now go out there, look for problems, search for solutions, build skills, and create your life.