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The Value Add Challenge

TKDTyler

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In the spirit of continual fastlane mentality development, the concept of providing value should permeate everything around you. Friendships, customers, jobs, business, you name it - there is value to be served on a platter.

Interestingly enough, providing interpersonal value follows a similar template to providing value in business. Many members of this forum embody value adding until it bleeds through their pores, but for a large portion of the population, it is not a natural response. The challenge plans to address this issue and change the way we think about providing value.

The Challenge
1. Provide direct value to at least 1 person a day.
2. Value add cannot be monetary based (Many people use money as a means to mask their lack of value. Paying for lunch does not count.)
2. Recognize your value add, how it develops stronger relationships, and improves real personal value in the eyes of others (very similar to building a business and reoccuring customers).

The Goal
1. To strengthen the mentality of adding value to people's lives.
2. Build your interpersonal brand (How do people view/perceive you?)
3. Fulfill the human need for contribution (@Kung Fu Steve This one's for you!)
4. Change a life in the process.

With that said, it can be the smallest to a life changing value add. It can be as little as making someone smile, to helping someone move. Ultimately, you just want to make someone's life a bit better than it was when they woke up.

Feel free to post any value adds that occur in your day to day!

What value have you added today?
 
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TKDTyler

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Today, I had a customer email me about a product that is out of stock which he wanted to purchase for his wife's birthday next week. Unfortunately I didn't have units coming in for another couple weeks, but I did have some units that did not pass my quality checks.

Fortunately, I did have the ability to take apart 4 defective products and combine their pieces to create a perfect product ready to sell & ship.

Man was ecstatic. Wife is going to love it. Probably made a long term customer out of it in the process.
 

MJ DeMarco

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Thanks for posting the challenge.

My favorite is paying for the meal of the customer behind you in the drive thru.
 

ZF Lee

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Thanks, @TKDTyler. Now this is what I call a refreshing thread!


1. Sending free samples of copywriting or free portfolio to clients looking for freelancers without asking for payment, or even going for the hire!

Did a bit of it before I went to Upwork. Copywriting and a little design. Stirred up some rather interesting conversations and networking....

Met disabled business owners, a young coder making a hobby website and an Indian engineering student:smuggy:

2. Asking more questions in a Q&A session for talks.
Now, contrary to popular belief, most people who go for talks, be it good seminars or meetup talks, will be 'blank' after the speaker's done.

The discussion must be brought beyond the basic topics in the speaker's talk.

Let me contextualise:

Yesterday I went to a crypto talk just for the kicks of it at my university.

The Forum here already has people deep into the crypto game, but where I come from, the general mindset of the populace operates like Window XP :p.

In the Q&A session, I brought up the issue of taxes on crypto transactions in e-commerce in Malaysia.

The short answer was that you can choose NOT to declare them if you were just running a sole proprietor...but it would just be better to register the sales in the accounting books as liquid money. And not declare to my country's monetary folks that I used Bitcoin channels lol.

Then the second speaker chimed in and said that I wouldn't need to register a company out of the country online, as the country had tax-exempt status for MSC companies. I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to depend wholly on no-tax though....there must be a catch.

While that question may have been a bit technical for most of the younger folk in the audience, asking that extra question would help them expand their knowledge a tad better, beyond the speech.

*MSC (Multimedia Super Corridor) status is a special designation for companies dealing with tech and the Internet in Malaysia, something like the modelling of Silicon Valley. But well, its actual application didn't turn out well...for some reasons bordering on politics:clench::inpain::inpain::inpain:

That is also the same with TFLF threads.


Some of the worst threads actually get saved when Fastlaners dish out life-changing questions and answers.

Some of the great threads become platinum when even better questions and answers are dished out.


3. Helping someone with a heavy bag.
I actually got late for a college class after helping a random girl on the road carry her HUGE bag for a pretty looong stretch of road to the train station. She's a law student. Forgot how far....frightens me a little to think of it!

Refused payment from her.

The girl then thought that I was being 'philosophical' for helping 'altruistically':clench::happy:

Good to help someone not to miss her train! Missing trains are a nightmare....speaking from personal experience.
 
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TKDTyler

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My favorite is paying for the meal of the customer behind you in the drive thru.
This is definitely a nice way to kickstart someone's day!

I keep finding myself trying to "buy" people value instead of providing people value - It's interesting to try and continue to find ways to give people value without money being the catalyst.

-------

Yesterday, I took an extra hour to help a friend set up his TKD school for his belt promotion test this weekend.

Didn't have to do it, he told me to go home, and I certainly had some other things to do, but taking an hour out of my day made his life that much less stressful. Built some good inside jokes in the process as well!
 

TKDTyler

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The girl then thought that I was being 'philosophical' for helping 'altruistically':clench::happy:

That goes to show how often people provide true value out of natural instinct in today's society. When people need to believe in an ulterior motive for a simple deed, what does that say about us as a population?

This is why great people and great businesses keep their customers. They come for the product - stay for the experience. People and relationships are no different.
 

Lex DeVille

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Called out a pyramid schemer on a local FB job page and tagged all the people she tried to recruit with the company's income disclosure -- the page that shows they have to recruit people to make money, "invest" $1000 in the business, and 60%+ who join earn nothing.

Instantly got tagged with "Thank Yous" from people who'd requested info from her previously.

SinisterLex - MLM conqueror, Guru destroyer, defender of Average Joes!

Muahahahaha

Sorry, head fantasies running wild again...


*UPDATE*

The recruiter responded and tried to discredit me. Then I crushed her under the weight of 10,000 pounds of cold hard provable facts and a John Oliver video on MLMs. Instead of sharing her reports of "what the company has done for me" she deleted all her posts and left the group, lol!!!


#toosinister >D
 
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Last edited:

TKDTyler

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Called out a pyramid schemer on a local FB job page and tagged all the people she tried to recruit with the company's income disclosure -- the page that shows they have to recruit people to make money, "invest" $1000 in the business, and 60%+ who join earn nothing.

Instantly got tagged with "Thank Yous" from people who'd requested info from her previously.

SinisterLex - MLM conqueror, Guru destroyer, defender of Average Joes!

Muahahahaha

Sorry, head fantasies running wild again...

>D
@SinisterLex = The Value RobinHood.

Takes value from the rich and gives it to the poor! The hero we need. The Hero we don't deserve.
 

TKDTyler

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I’m not sure if this accounts for value adding, but I was having problems today providing significant value in any places - the opportunities just did not present themselves.

I did begin to set up a group outing for a local music festival next month, and started inviting people to that I don;t. Or ally hang out with. I figure that it is always nice to be invited into social situatoins rather than to plan them.

The value: The value is in building other people’s social circle and connections through a highly social event. Many people never get to meet others outside of their immediate social circle very often - inviting others not only allows me to build new relationships, but it provides others the opportunity to meet and build relationships as well.
 

TKDTyler

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Update time:

I've been a bit sick, and was considering how to provide value when you are not around anybody.

That's when it hit me.

Just like you should always be trying to provide value to others around me, I should consistently be trying to add value to my own life as well.

I'm appending a rule:

1b. In addition to another person, provide value to yourself once a day.

Over the my sickness, I really just took a break from everything and focused on my health. If I cannot stay healthy, then how am I supposed to provide value? By taking care of my health, not only was recovery faster, but I can focus on helping sooner as well.
 
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D

Deleted50669

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Called out a pyramid schemer on a local FB job page and tagged all the people she tried to recruit with the company's income disclosure -- the page that shows they have to recruit people to make money, "invest" $1000 in the business, and 60%+ who join earn nothing.

Instantly got tagged with "Thank Yous" from people who'd requested info from her previously.

SinisterLex - MLM conqueror, Guru destroyer, defender of Average Joes!

Muahahahaha

Sorry, head fantasies running wild again...


*UPDATE*

The recruiter responded and tried to discredit me. Then I crushed her under the weight of 10,000 pounds of cold hard provable facts and a John Oliver video on MLMs. Instead of sharing her reports of "what the company has done for me" she deleted all her posts and left the group, lol!!!


#toosinister >D
Damn, not Drew Brees!
 

p0stscript

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That's when it hit me.

Just like you should always be trying to provide value to others around me, I should consistently be trying to add value to my own life as well

Excellent, my thought and action for the day now, if not the rest of life.
 

TKDTyler

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The recruiter responded and tried to discredit me. Then I crushed her under the weight of 10,000 pounds of cold hard provable facts and a John Oliver video on MLMs. Instead of sharing her reports of "what the company has done for me" she deleted all her posts and left the group, lol!!!
That is legendary.

Unfortunately, MLM's are like Hydras.
You can cut off the head, but 2 more grow back to take it's place.... More entertainment for you I guess? Hah

Excellent, my thought and action for the day now, if not the rest of life.
What did you do today? :cool:
 
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Last edited:

TKDTyler

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Daily Value Add (Yesterday): Had a long, deep conversation with @James Fend and added some advice with some current situations he has been facing.

Personal Value Add: Finally started writing up my own situation and issues for my progress thread on the inside. It is hard to open up and put it out there, but it helps me grow both my own story telling abilities, as well as allow others to see into my life and develop stronger relationship from there. (+forum value add as well! Woo)
 

p0stscript

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Excellent, my thought and action for the day now, if not the rest of life.

What did you do today? :cool:

Ha, hung by my tongue :p

During a hospital visit with my wife to see her brother in law I stopped to have a chat with a patient who'd not had any visitors.
On personal side, I wrote down some goals for next ten years (some to be achieved within a month; a year; three years; five years and ten) and looked at how I need to develop or change to achieve them.

Thanks for keeping me accountable @TKDTyler it's easy to 'talk the talk', walking takes effort.
 

TKDTyler

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During a hospital visit with my wife to see her brother in law I stopped to have a chat with a patient who'd not had any visitors.
Nice!

I've been finding that it is the easiest things to improve other people's day, but because it is slightly inconvenient, people normally don't do it.

I'm sure by taking that extra time, it created a memory that he/she is going to tell to the people she is close with.

People love to talk about good things that happen to them. We just need to give them something to talk about!



-------------------------------------------

3/31/17

External Value: Was doing some research at starbucks today and a couple things happened:

1. I noticed a foreign guy doing work when his iPad died, he had no charger and looked disgruntled. Easy fix - offered him my charger while I was there doing work.
2. The workers there seemed to be having a blast - they created a great environment within the shop. Of course I had to let them know!

Personal Value: Spent time researching a ton about packaging and expanding my knowledge on the different methods, variations, and processes within the packaging industry.
 
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Rabelo

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Been doing free sketch for people..never charged anyone for my art..even thou I'm not good at it....but it makes people actually happy. This is the latest one i did for a guy next door..we not really friends..but the smile was huge enough to also impact my day. True Happiness comes from giving.it feels good
 

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