New and Recycled Value

            Today, I am going to start with explaining some thoughts on the meaning of value.  I won't bore you with my own lengthy explanation of how value is different from cost (many have already explained this in very non-boring terms; check this Forbes article), instead we'll discuss the two types of value and how you might get started pumping such value into the world.

            New Value

            Have you ever made breakfast for you or someone else without a cookbook?  If so, you've made your own sort of new value!  You took raw materials and some creative kitchen-work and produced value in the form of an energizing meal.  New Value comes from innovation and imagination.  It is the creation of something useful from raw materials.  Now, the value of the creation increases proportionally to the positive effect it has on the world around it.  A novel breakfast, though satiating and appealing, pales in comparison to the value of a clean, safe, nuclear reactor which can power a continent.  As a human, you are most capable of adding New Value to this world; start with an innovative meal and work your way up – always ask, how can I make life better?

            Recycled Value

            Have you invested your financial resources in stocks, people, or assets?  Recycling Value requires the utilization of capital acquired from creating New Value for the purpose of funding the origination of even more New Value.  Pretty neat, right!  New Value converts to currency, currency morphs into Recycled Value, Recycled Value spurs on New Value.  Ideally, this cycle produces ever greater results since human imagination brings more to the table than any dollar amount invested; new ideas can 10x the currency invested, but without the ideas the currency stagnates and, without the currency, the idea never reaches the light of day.

 

            A self-sustaining, self-improving, interdependent system exists in the form of New Value and Recycled Value, or, innovation and investment.  The crux of such system lies in the hands of the humans (or aliens and uber-smart animals) existing within the system.  Innovate and make New Value, then Recycle Value through investing in others.

 

            First Steps 

            Answer these:

• How can I make my life, and the lives of others, better?
• What can I learn today, or over the next year, which will allow me to output even more value tomorrow, or over the next decade?
• Is there someone, or some company, taking innovation to a whole new level; can I spur them on financially, or, with my time?

Then, act on it.