Value and Values in Work and Life
In midst of darkness, we realize the value of light…
In midst of illness, we realize the value of health…
In midst of loneliness, we realize the value of family…
The true value of anything is realized only in its absence…
Happiness in Life is about pursuing activities & experiences and having things & people that we value. Happiness also lies in creating value for society BY performing activities we love & enjoy. Our Happiest work lies in the intersection of what we love driven by our interests, what we are good at led by our skills and what the society needs and values.
Humans are unique from other living beings partly due to our Creativity and much of it is driven by Utility- with an aim of creating value for someone. However, creativity needs Liberty- freedom to create and also Integrity in the process of creating & exchanging value. Besides, it also includes Responsibility for Sustainability as a concern to our environment as one of our core values.
The value of our life is the value we create & add in life of others by expressing our true self for the benefit of others. We also create personal & social rules which function as values to allow us to fairly & sustainably create & exchange value among ourselves.
Our Values are the most important value that is beyond any value and based on which all other value is created and exchanged. It forms the core identity of a person reflecting the principles and purposes of a person’s life. Values indeed are the most important feature for any person’s life followed by their knowledge & skills. Values are often core differentiating factor between success & failure for both individuals & organizations in any field of life- personal & professional.
Values are vital across all spheres of life. All rightful religions are human myths to infuse moral values in human beings. The essence of Religion is ethics and human values. It is subject of moral science and a common manifesto of virtuous human values.
Even in any inter-personal relationships, mutual healthy relationships partly depend on mutual Values as no side wants to be or feel under-loved or under-valued. Whenever we meet someone- we must just focus on 2 things: what can we learn from them and how can we add value to them.
In any industry, there are 3 stakeholders in value-chain: producer, distributor and consumer. These 3 forms the economy of the sector where economic value is created, distributed & consumed by these 3 eco-actors. Enterprises driven by shared values are the most valuable & sustainable led by the desire to create sustainable value for customers, employees & all other social stakeholders in value-chain and beyond.
Value-thinking is the core of any modern enterprise. In any venture, creating & sustaining value from nothing is the most exciting challenge. Enterprises focus on unique value proposition of their product/service- relative benefits & costs for customers. They strive to build better value proposition-more relative benefits at less relative cost than competitors. They work to create Value by solving problems and serving needs of people better than others. They work to develop a valuable product so that people will inevitably value their product. They focus on 3V’s: Value-Creation, Value-Addition and Value-Chain and 3U’s: Users, Uses and Usages for maximizing Value as they know that greater these 3U’s, greater the value of their product/platform and more valuable their enterprise.
Our values define what & how we value things. People in general value things more if they have earned on their own as that which is free for all is valued & cared less by the people than that which is earned by the same people. Moreover, every person has a different value & every person values everything differently in life so it is not much of use to compare persons & things. For some people- nature/environment is more valuable than income/wealth. We prioritize things based on what we value most.
Value is the purpose of all works in Life as work must be of value for someone in the society to be sustainable. Indeed, the entire purpose and process of enterprise is to solve problem of people, serve needs of people by utilizing the skills of people to create mutual value for people. We must all create value for someone else in society in order to earn value for self. As long as we are doing something of value to someone with all the right values, then we will surely do some valuable work.
Work is created during the process of producing or performing some value from some product or service for some people who finds it valuable. The value of our work/product/service depends on how others value it which in turn depends on how valuable it is to them and to others around them.
If we want to create value for people, we must find & make out that what people value or else showcase our work that we value and let people find some value in it. If someone do not value or under-value our work, then we must either improve our work or just find someone else who does. We must work what we love and what others value. If others value our work, then it implies that they need & love our work and find it valuable so that we can do sustain our work.
There are 2 aspects of work: first, doing what nobody else is doing and which others find valuable. Second, doing what others are also doing but doing in different or better way than others and which people find valuable. Value of our work is determined by partly our own work, partly by people who are also providing same or similar work and partly by the people who needs & value our work
Income is a monetary value of our work which partly depends on the external factors (demand and supply of our work) on which we have minimum control but it also partly depends on the internal factors (our work performance and productivity) on which we have maximum control. If we no longer need something any more, its value becomes nothing. Hence, we must keep on doing new or/and better work which others find useful and valuable.
Age, Time & Money are just abstract metrics with no real intrinsic absolute value. It’s the Work by which we create & deliver value for people & planet. Ultimately, it’s the value we create & add for someone-that creates core value in our and other’s life. Hence, we must just focus on creating & adding more and better value for others.
Values gives us motivations & principles in life and hence we must Live by and Live for our values to create sustainable value for self and society. We must live by our own values for things that we value to live a valuable life. Value and Values answers the basic question of What and Why in Work and Life. Values are constant in nature and limited in range which humans can learn once and practise regularly to develop a habit where as Value is dynamic and boundless in nature and which humans must keep on learning & innovating better over time for sustainability of self & society.
