I talked recently in another post about the fact that money is a tool that we use to keep track of value. Money really has no value in and of itself; rather, it has value because that is what we associate with it. We receive money in return for creating value through a service or product, and we give money in return for someone providing value to us. Todays’ principle is very similar: money follows value.

Let’s assume for a minute that your main goal is to make a lot of money (granted, this isn’t the healthiest goal, but bear with me). I can’t remember off the top of my head who said this, and I’ll probably butcher the quote, but in essence it goes something like this, “If you want to be rich, find out what people want and provide it for them.” It’s as simple as that.

There may be those at the top that cheated to get there. But the reality is that cheating isn’t sustainable. At some point, you have to provide something of actual value in order to make money. The key here is that whatever you provide has real value to someone else. It doesn’t have to have any value to you necessarily; people aren’t going to pay for something just because you think it’s valuable. They will pay for something they see as valuable. So you want to make a little more money? Get out there and create some value!

For more information on this subject, please download and listen to The Appraiser Coach Podcast Episode: