BORN ON A MONDAY EPISODE VIII

VALUE BY ASSOCIATION

Dan Ariely in his book (Dollars & Sense) shares the story of how Tahitian Black Pearls were introduced to the market in the 1940s.

There was no way of knowing how valuable they were or if they were more or less valuable than White pearls. So this diamond dealer tried unsuccessfully to sell them off as pearls of value without success until he came up with a brilliant idea.

He reached out to Harvey Winston (a famous jeweller in New York) and convinced him to display these black pearls side by side with other precious gems, rubies, sapphires, diamonds etc & priced them exhorbitantly high.

What happened next?

The demand for Black pearls soared as well as the price & they eventually became more expensive than white pearls.

This principle is very simple & is based on a human habit for pricing called ‘anchoring’. There is usually no way of knowing the true value of a thing without first associating it with another thing and then anchoring its value based on that association.

Someone famously said that if there are 5 foolish people around you, you didn’t count well, there are actually 6. You included.

VALUE APPRECIATES OR DEPRECIATES BY ASSOCIATION.

Remember the story of the price of a bottle of water in different locations? That’s value by association!

This is both a perception & very practical in the workplace & business.

You are perceived as valuable if you associate with people that are known to bring value to the workplace & your poor performance is easily explained by your association with those that don’t.

Beyond perception (which is immensely valuable by the way), there are very practical benefits to being intentional about your associations.

WE OFTEN PICK UP THE SPEECH, WORK ETHICS, BEHAVIOURAL PATTERNS & HABITS OF THE ASSOCIATIONS CLOSEST TO US.

That’s culture & remember culture eats strategy for breakfast.

So you can practically revolutionise your performance by being deliberate about your associations.

Three things to do:

1. Closely associate with the best. Learn, adjust, grow & excel. Walk & work with the best with the goal to be the best.

2. Loosely associate with everyone: Attempt to be friendly & approachable to all. Your best friend was probably once a stranger. Be cautious but open.

3. Avoid the worst as ardently as you pursue the best. Avoid the indolent, the nay sayers, the saboteurs & the passionately average. You will only become like them if you don’t. Be diplomatic but be closed.

Your career or business can be made or marred by association so be intentional & take steps to increase your value today.

Have a great week & see you next Monday!

Dr Ben Wayo
DrBenWayo@aol.com

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