It's the value we create that matters

Sad little boy

It is possible to earn a lot of money and create very little value for society.

It is possible to earn very little money and create incredible value for society.

So how to do we know when we have it right, for a startup or even life? Here’s my measure – how much would people miss you if you didn’t turn up? And how long would it take for them to notice after you stopped turning up? The more our not being there gets noticed, the more valuable we know our work is. I’m pretty sure the world wouldn’t notice if Wall St took a year a two off. While I’m sure most children will notice the day their mum and dad didn’t come home.

How long would it take for customers to reach out to your startup once you stopped shipping or your software stopped working? It’s an interesting question. And while we often hope to attract a large quantum of customers and scale, I’d rather have 100 people who really cared if I wasn’t there, than a million people who clicked elsewhere the moment I disappeared.

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