Sometimes it takes a break to help you analyze and understand what is valuable. Our recent beach vacation helped remind me of the fact and challenge around what is and is not valuable - and that lesson came from my Anna.
Anna remembered that her Aunt Kristal had a sea glass necklace. Anna wanted to find sea glass, but first didn't know what it was. On Wednesday morning I took her for a short hunting trip and found her a nice piece of sea glass. She thought it was wonderful and was amazed. I explained to her that could be someone's discarded trash, a glass bottle, which the sea has broken and beaten and molded into a beautiful rounded edge rock. She loved it. One man's trash is another's treasure for certain. That afternoon Anna went on a hunt for sea glass and found another 30 pieces. Thursday morning, she found another 50 pieces. She found her treasure. She even packaged a few of her best pieces in a bag for her cousin's birthday. She put in work to find it because to her sea glass had value.
I am reminded years ago of people putting extra value in certain colors of cloth. Its almost foreign to most Americans today. Can you imagine paying more for a purple t-shirt than a green t-shirt? The rarity and beauty of something different was valued and there is value in that. We put that value in precious stones and metals now. But, if we flooded the market or just could find gold washed up on the shores, its considered junk. There are lots of other examples, the NC beaches contain beautiful wild flowers which are just weeds that are all over. These same beautiful flowers are for sale 2 hours away and people buy them to plant.
So, I sit here and think about the business I am in. What do we value? What do our customers value? How are we unique and how do we remain valuable and distinguished amidst a sea of other people claiming they can do the same thing? How do we provide value to our employees and how do we help them to not take for granted what a unique and great culture and environment we have?
