Universal Value
To create more abundance in the world, simply take these 4 ways and apply them. As you get better or more skilled, what you deliver will become more valuable.
If everyone were to take these 4 actions and apply them in a deliberate way, in a way that is for the sake of giving, and not for receiving, we could create so much abundance in the world.
Connect
Entertain
Organize
Support
Connect
Let’s start with Connect. What are you connecting people to? It’s always:
Resources
People
Ideas
Nature
Self
Opportunities
Connection is about speed. Accomplishing tasks, projects, and goals faster.
Connection is about speed. Accomplishing tasks, projects, and goals faster. When you connect people to relevant resources, people, etc., then you help create momentum and speed to outcomes. Imagine doing this for everyone at scale.
Facebook connects you to friends and peers (and advertisers back to you)
Tinder connects you to your next date.
Google Maps connects you to your next destination.
Schools (should) connect you to new ideas, new ways of thinking and doing
Bosses, colleagues, peers, and parents connect you to opportunities
VCs connect you to money
Etc.
Entertain
Entertain is about creating transformative experiences for others through story, art, and games.
Let’s talk about Entertain. While entertainment is a trillion dollar industry, the ability to entertain others will also add to your bottom line (everything’s not about money profits, many times it’s about status/emotional/confidence profits). There are 3 ways to entertain:
Story
Art
Games
To entertain is just another form of self-expression. The person who consumes entertainment does it because it provokes thought and generates emotion/feeling.
Story, art, and games are simply emotional drivers. If a story is good, it challenges, provokes, inspires, and makes us feel the gamut of emotions. Feeling anything deeply makes you feel alive. People want to feel alive.
To become a better storyteller, you must become story. Meaning, you must live the tale, journey through the conflict and struggle yourself, and come out the other side transformed (the whole point of any story is the transformation of its characters —> always).
Playing games is like creating a story with others. When you play, you challenge yourself to work with others, or to compete. The result should always lead to being more skilled in some area.
Watching games, participating in fan events, etc. is a way to show belonging. It’s cultural. Sport brings people together. Again, a shared story —> “I was at that match!”
Artistic expression is simply a way to capture story through art, crafts, painting, music, etc.
Even if story is primary, the different ways we create and express that story represents our own artistic expression.
Great cinema is transformative.
Basketball is poetry.
Painting is divine.
Music is ecstasy.
Tell better stories. Play games. Do art.
Organize
Organize is about creating clarity in people's lives — clarity of purpose, action, and outcomes.
Let’s talk about Organize.
Organizers are the greatest value creators of the world. They produce businesses, institutions, great works of art and literature, the finest cinema, and more. They create things that are reproducible and evergreen. The people who organize things for us are:
Parents
Entrepreneurs
Engineers
Directors
Designers
Writers
Architects
Thought leaders
Teachers
etc.
To use the example above, Facebook connects people (or advertisers) to other people. Mark Z. created Facebook. He organized it, along with his team.
Great teachers teach frameworks, not facts. Great masters create a path for others to become masters.
“A master is not the one with the most students, but the one who creates the most masters.”
Your parents (if you were lucky enough to have them) should have made life easier for you.
Designers who create great user interfaces make it easy for you to navigate apps.
Engineers bring designs to life.
Writers structure their stories and content so that you are transported to another world, or so that you can find a way to do transport yourself to another world.
And on and on. Those who organize for us, create clarity. And clarity — clarity of concepts, clarity of direction, clarity of purpose, clarity of who you are — is the most valuable gift.
Support
Support is about giving your time, energy, and attention to others without the need for reciprocity.
And finally, Support. Where would you be right now without the support of so many people (and things).
Your parents, teachers, and friends.
Support is a simple action, yet difficult to get right. Support actions come down to one thing:
Giving freely of your time, attention, and energy.
That means:
Listening to others
Giving without asking for anything in return
Being present when someone needs you
Not easy to do, is it? As you get busy, and your life fills with other relationships, it becomes harder and harder to give so freely to others.
But it’s also difficult for people to give so freely to the people closest to them. We start to take others for granted. Our partners feel this first. Our colleagues feel it. We can’t forget who matters most to us.
The Next Event
Want to see how powerful these concepts are? When you attend your next event, party, or mixer, focus on delivering one of these 4 actions.
Talk to people to understand their needs, then match them to resources, opportunities, people, etc. (Connect)
Share relevant and transformative stories (Entertain)
Share a framework or model that has changed your life (Organize)
Give your time and energy to someone's project or idea (Support)
People need new models. Models that generate abundance, not just self-serving benefits. If done right, we get the best of both worlds. But we have to come from the right place.
CEOS. The Universal Value framework. Use it and watch what happens.