I read Seth Godin's blog because it's full of gems like this post reminding us how we actually behave in the real world.
I have long argued this idea from an economic perspective around price and value. Too many companies (especially technology ones?) get caught up in the urgency of the creation, and assume its value is proportional to the energy invested. The Death March to delivery HAS to be worth something. Customers MUST value it. We've worked so hard to deliver this incredible technology — and it SO solves the customer's problem.
Price (as a reflection of value), however, is the meeting point of two curves. It's the "equal sign" between producers AND customers, and reflects all the rational and emotional value trade-offs both sides make around a solution.
Seth's post, however, goes deeper because it strikes at that starting point in the human economics psyche BEFORE we start making trade-offs and translating those emotions into mundane things like price. It speaks to the heart of what we are when we consume, regardless of whether it's as individuals or in a business setting.
People make their own realities. If Bill thought he was first, then in his mind, he was. When he started using it, it began to exist. When he stops going back, it will disappear.
Every person who encounters your organization for the first time comes with beginner's mind. She knows nothing about yesterday or how hard you worked or your financing or what it took to build it. She's here now, she's first, let's go.
Brilliant. I hope I can remember this as I get wrapped up in my own new creation.
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