If what you offer doesn’t make life better for your customers, then you’re useless.
And that’s the best-case scenario.
More likely, you’re downright harmful.
Harmful to your customer, because you make them waste money. But we might not care about that—it’s their problem, right?
Let’s take a broader perspective. Your harm extends beyond those directly involved.
You consume resources that could be used for more meaningful purposes.
You generate waste, and we certainly don’t need any more of that.
You discredit the category you represent.
Humans, by nature, like to simplify. At our core, we operate in ways that lean toward simplicity—science tells us this. And yes, that applies to you too. Deal with it.
We’ll delve into concepts like fast and slow thinking, brain functioning, and Kahneman’s System 1 and System 2 another time—he won the Nobel Prize for this in 2002.
For now, understand this: we like to simplify, which means we tend to categorize and generalize as much as possible.
In other words, it’s convenient (and often useful) to assume that anyone in a certain category is like others we’ve encountered from that category.
The only conclusion you can safely draw from knowing that something belongs to a category is that it belongs to that category—nothing more.
So, if I deal with someone who sells me a boat along with a freshwater desalination unit, a nautical chart for arid zones, and antifouling paint for winter storage, the moment I realize I’ve been tricked, my first thought will be: boat sellers are dishonest.
Even if that person is trusting and chalks it up to bad luck, they’re not coming back to you. They’ll find another supplier.
So, before proposing a product or service, ask yourself: how does this improve my customer’s life?
If you don’t have a valid answer—and don’t want to find one—I really don’t know how to help you.
