Quotable Business: Success VS Value

WELCOME TO OUR WEBSITE! If you like what you are reading and would like to hire me to help you with your business' marketing, please feel free to contact me.

The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive. Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.

- Albert Einstein

If you’ve never hear this phrase before, I hope that seeing it now will ignite a fire inside your mind to really think about what is most important in life and also in business. If you have read this quote before, follow along with me as I break down both Success and Value because I’m sure there’s something I’ll talk about that you might not have thought about before.

For those of you just joining us for the first time, thank you for reading my blog and I do invite you to leave comments on anything you find interesting or if you have questions for me at all. Also, just a quick note to everyone reading, the Quotable Business category will now feature articles that are written around a famous quote and shown how any quote can be turned into a quote about business.

Success VS Value

There are many people who will lump both of these categories together when talking about their life and the things they’ve done, but as the genius Albert Einstein has shown us in this quote, they are definitely two totally different things and should be viewed on as such. No matter if you discuss your life and talk about the success you have gained, or if you discuss the value you’ve added to the world, you are free to do as you please, but I do believe that Albert Einstein is right when he tells us to become a “man of value”. Value lasts forever, while Success can run out very quick depending on how good you are with finances.

MAN OF SUCCESS

There are a few things that measure a man’s success. They are as follows:

1. Money
2. Assets

Now, you can break each of these categories down into smaller, more targeted categories like cars, houses and jewelry for assets. For the sake of keeping the article to the point, I will just keep the list at two items; Money and Assets.

Now, money can buy you lots of things, but as the saying goes, money doesn’t buy happiness. Think about how many rich people in the world have committed suicide. Why would they do something like this if the money they had truly made them happy?

Your assets can be left behind to your loved ones, or given away to charity (this also holds true to your money) so I do believe that these things do have a purpose and are valuable. However, I do not think that they hold a candle to the amount of respect you can gain when you are a man of value.

MAN OF VALUE

When you are a man of value, you can break this down into a couple of simple categories as well;

1. Respect
2. Honor

The above two things can also be broken down into smaller categories, but again, for the sake of keeping this article to the point, I’ll leave those out. After all, you’ve got to have room to think after you read the article, so you can break out the pad and pencil and jot down a few ideas that come to mind when you think about Respect and Honor.

I believe that Respect is the ultimate form of currency. If you’ve got respect, you can get just about anything you want out of a person. On the other hand, if you’re rich, but everyone hates you and no one respects you, you’ll surely not get a tenth of what you would with their respect.

Honor is another big thing with me. You can cal it a macho male ego if you want, that’s fine. Regardless, you have to look at honor for what it truly is. When you have honor, you have morals and values that exceed anything money can do for you. Yes, you can give your child money if you feel bad for yelling at them, and yes, you can buy an expensive gift after the argument you have with your significant other, but what about not yelling or arguing in the first place? Wouldn’t that make more sense?

What I believe Albert Einstein was saying in the quote is that in order to really make an impact with your life, the money will only place you in a group of thousands of other rich people. It’s the selfless good deeds you do that will set you apart from the rest and etch your name into history. This goes for business as well.

Value with business

This could be many things but the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Value and business is the quality of the work or product you are supplying. If you’re in the service industry, you must make it a point to give the highest quality service in the world. Your business can gain vast amounts of money, but without a positive reply to the question “How was our service when you hired us?” your business will surely sink, and fast.

Albert Einstein was a genius and I believe any quote you can find of his or anyone elses for that matter can be applied to business. So, take a bit of time and think about what you’re aiming for with your business; Success or Value?

Leave a comment and let me know which you would choose and why. I’m interested to see what you strive for with your businesses and think it would make a great discussion.

Editors Note: This is the first of many articles to come in 2008 that take famous quotes and turn them into business topics. If you’ve got a quote that you live by, let me know and I’ll try to write up an article on it. Also I want to apologize for those who are wondering why the first article of the year is coming halfway through the month. We’re now back on track and will be posting quality content regularly now.