Pennies from Heaven

Knowing what to do is not the same as doing it. Realizing the necessity of taking a certain action is usually not sufficient motivation to actually make a move. Such is man's proclivity for inertia. Is it fair to project this idea onto our prospective clients?
One important aspect of our idea is our approach to values. When we talk about value and added value we have four different dimensions in mind: human value, creative value, social value, and... yes, financial value. These distinctions don't always resonate with our prospects. The issue always seems to be reduced back to: how and when do you produce financial value?
This question is asked for every new initiative taken, implying that we are all in fact very careful to make only decisions that create a certain and fair amount of return on investment. How can we then explain the burst of the internet bubble? How is it that our economy has been in a rut ever since that time?

Financial value... hmmm. We live in an experience economy as much as we live in a knowledge economy, this is illustrated by the high value we put on experiences. We are quite willing to pay good money for experiences in our personal lives; we go skying and scuba diving, drink quality wine, and pay exorbitant prices to see our favorite artists perform. The essence is always the experience. How odd to value such a transient intangible 'thing'?
Financial value is not the bottom line at all. Money in fact is not the most important factor in life, and neither in business. (Life includes business, therefore what is valid of life is valid of business: there is no business without life)
Why then do we limit our conception of value so much in our professional lives? Someone told me recently:"If it doesn't make you any money, you shouldn't be doing it."
That's bullshit. We have to stop this systematic application of a double standard. Return on investment is not the important issue, added value is. If we act only out of financial gain, we paralyse all value adding processes. All financial value is produced by people working together creating and marketing new ideas, it is a consequence of succesful processes in other value dimension (human, creative, social). The surest way therefore to create financial value is to invest in these other dimensions. Of course everybody knows this, and we have known this for years, yet it still seems difficult to act on this common knowledge.