Live to Win - Not Just to Survive!

It is a reality of life that to survive and grow and to be of value to others, all individuals and organizations must do two things: production and marketing.

Production means producing something of value to others - be they ideas, services and/or goods (collectively known as the "products"). To be useful or of value to others, we must always have the capacity to produce ideas, services and goods which are wanted or needed by them in their lives in exchange for what we want or need in our lives.

That productive capacity we all have, for examples:

1) Talents, including to entertain, are God-given: Search within yourself, and you will find talents within you which are of value to others. You probably heard of a well-known black singer who was previously a jailed convict - would he be in jail had his singing talent been discovered and marketed earlier?

2) Skills, in various forms, which we acquired in schools, technical colleges, vocation institutes, internships, vacation jobs, etc. all give us some capacity for production;

3) Experience in life too enables us to offer solutions to the problems of others: Heard of the success story of a man who - after learning from an internet forum of the common problem faced by many Ferrari car owners in US with regards to their car emblems which were often stolen or vandalized - worked out and offered a solution to these car owners in the process enriching himself? and

4) Education from lower levels to the tertiary level and beyond: must all impart us the knowledge and skills for productive capacity. Only the top 20% of so of the education system eventually become intellectual "high-brow", what does the education system do to the rest of the 80%? In my view, the education system must help these majority in capacity building for production and marketing in their adult lives: ample avenues must be created for discovery and development of talents as well as acquisition of living and earning skills.

Now, what is marketing? Marketing, put it simply, means delivering products to satisfy the 'needs and wants' of others in exchange for something of value to us - be it money or something which can satisfy our own 'needs and wants' or organizational objectives.

Marketing, therefore, involves identifying and anticipating the 'needs and wants' of people and organizations (collectively known as customers); deciding what 'needs and wants' we or our firm can profitably satisfy; then developing, promoting and delivering the products to the customers to effect an exchange for the price and/ or other requirements that we need or want.

"Needs" in marketing means the necessities of life such as foods, clothing, shelter, sex , etc. at the very basic level to "self-actualization", at the highest level. "Wants" are items additionally desired once the principal "need" is met - much like icing to the cake, so to speak. So the "need" for shelter may be a house, while the "want" may be the renovation, decorations, amenities, facilities, etc.

There is this theory of "Hierarchy of Human Needs" - known as the Maslow's Theory - which holds that there are different kinds and levels of human needs to be satisfied at different stages of a person's life or for different people: At the very basic level - foods, clothing, shelter, sex, etc are needed by everyone: Take the case a "shelter", we first need just a basic dwelling - our ancestor, just a cave; At the next level - security and safety are needed: From a basic dwelling, we now need a safe "shelter" with security perhaps, say, a gated house or a gated apartment; Then, affiliation, belonging and socialization: that may be a gated house or a gated apartment within a community with avenues for socialization and community activities say, within a golf resort or a condominium with club house facilities;Then, the need for esteem, recognition and image: the "shelter" need is to be within a good-class development or township; Finally, the need is for "self-actualization": the "shelter" need becomes the need of a plot of land in an exclusive area to build or re-build a "shelter" according to one's own specifications and tastes.

Production and marketing alone only help us to survive and grow somewhat. To be really successful as an individual or a firm, there must be passion or "fire in the belly" over and above production and marketing. It is with passion that we live to win and excel - not just to survive and scrap through life!

By:
GT TANHALIM

http://moneymakingviainternet.blogspot.com