When you look at people who are at the top of their field, you will discover that they all have one thing in common. It really doesn’t matter what field they are in, they all do one specific thing on a consistent basis. Can you guess what that is? They are all busy adding value to other peoples lives in some way. And by doing this they also create success for themselves. This doesn’t happen by accident, it is 100% intentional. Creating greater value for others is an extremely powerful success strategy for several reasons. Let’s examine some of those reasons and consider a few examples.

Raise your own value

When you create value for others, you become more valuable to them. Think about this in regard to your own life. Every single person who is important to you is adding value to your life on some level. The closer your relationship with them, the greater their contribution to your life. What kind of contribution? Personal relationships are prioritized according to their emotional value. In some important way, having that person in your life is adding value to your life because they make you feel better about yourself. In business relationships, the value is generally measured by its effect on your bottom line or on your ability to do your business.

A paradigm shift

When we focus on creating more value for other people, it completely changes our perspective. We naturally start to move away from self serving motives as we increasingly consider the welfare of others. This causes our own happiness and success to become a byproduct of our efforts to contribute to the happiness and success of others. The more we focus on contributing in a worthwhile way to other people’s lives, the more our own happiness becomes bound up with theirs. This kind of community consciousness elevates our existence to a much higher level. When we focus on adding value to the lives of others it expands our world. When our focus is based on selfishness, our world shrinks. As our world expands, we become exposed to greater opportunities. Acting on those opportunities brings greater value into our lives and that contributes to our success. It’s a complete win-win situation.

How can we apply this in our personal lives right away?

Start with your closest relationships. Look for ways to contribute to the lives of those around you. What can you do for your spouse, children, or friends to help them feel better about themselves? How can you bring a smile to their face, or a warm feeling to their hearts? As you take steps to contribute value to their lives, notice how it makes you feel about yourself. You will soon notice a resulting increase in your personal sense of joy and satisfaction. In some way, by adding value to those you care about, you will also be creating value for yourself and your relationships with those people. This is the best way to create what we might call relationship success.

What about success in business?

If you are an employee, find ways to become more valuable to your employer. Creating greater value at work adds to your employers bottom line, and his appreciation may add to yours. If you are an entrepreneur, look for new ways of create value for those in your team and those that you do business with. For example, there are a lot of of articles on this site for the sole purpose of adding value to the lives of my readers. If anything you read helps you on any level, then I will have added value to your life. What’s in it for me? Well, first and foremost, I want your life to be awesome. Additionally, most of my coaching clients and those who buy products i recommend do so because they have gotten value from reading my articles.

First and foremost

The point is, focus on adding value first and don’t worry about how it is going to come back to you. Don’t think of adding value to the lives of others as an exchange. It’s not about looking to make an even trade. It is more like making a deposit into the community human growth account. We all make deposits and we all extract benefits. We never know exactly how or when that is going to happen. One thing we do know, if you make enough deposits you can eventually live on the interest, and that’s a beautiful thing. So take advantage of every opportunity to make deposits in that community of human growth account. By doing so, you will be creating success by creating value. It’s one of those situations where everyone benefits.

 

How do you create value for others?

How does creating value make you feel?