Be Remarkabale

Plentitude is another word for abundance. It is abundance, not scarcity that is going to govern our new post industrial revolution. Copies…duplication…mediocracy all run in excess. What is uncommon is remarkability. Whatever can be made, can be made ‘well enough’ or it can be made remarkable. This abundance from being remarkable:

• Drives your value
• Works to open doors that were previously closed
• Spins off nearly endless opportunities

If you make it only ‘well enough’ or just ‘good enough’ you soon find yourself in a race to the bottom to be the low cost provider.  If you on the other hand make things or provide remarkable services, there is little to no push back on price.  

Here’s how it used to be:

Value came from scarcity. Take the signs of wealth in the industrial age, gold, diamonds, oil, college degrees. These were considered valuable because of their scarcity.

When things are plentiful, they become devalued. For instance, carpets. They were once rare handmade things found only in the homes of the wealthy. They stopped being a status symbol when they could be made by the thousands in factories. 

The logic of the new world turns this upside down. In our developing new economy value is derived from generosity and from relationships. Seth Godin calls it the gift economy. In the gift economy value is derived from abundance. Just as email addresses grow in value as there are more of them, power comes from abundance. 

In this revolutionary economic time what becomes valuable…truly valuable… are relationships. Your relationships rocket up in value as your network grows even slightly. Just like email addresses, value grows with abundance that springs from remarkability.