How much is something worth? Typically, something is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it, right?
So, for example, in the NBA, while the highest NBA salary award goes to Stephen Curry, who makes roughly $45 million a year to throw an orange ball through a metal hoop, it is LeBron James, who makes a whopping total of $95.4 million a year when you include salary and endorsements. Why are they worth so much? Many would argue it is because people are willing to pay lots of money to see them play and buy their merchandise and the merchandise of the teams they represent or the products they endorse.
Perhaps an even more surprising trend in our culture is the current growth of NFTs or non-fungible tokens. In short, these odd-sounding items are simply unique digital assets that are most often used to represent things like works of art or other collectibles. On record as the most expensive NFT ever sold is famous digital artist Mike “Beeple” Winkelmann’s “EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS,” which sold for $69.3 million at Christie’s. This NFT is a collage of 5,000 pieces of Beeple’s digital artwork. Another NFT — a digital copy of Twitter’s co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey’s very first tweet — went for $2.9 million dollars.
It amazes me that people would pay that much for such a “token,” but in our digital world, digital art and collectibles are perceived as having as much value as a Van Gogh or Warhol painting.
It is clear from these examples, that in our culture, we often place a value on things based on how much something is worth, which in turn is determined by how much somebody is willing to pay for it. Two of the key organizational values of the nonprofit I lead are the values of respect and dignity. For us, this means that the value people have is derived from who they are intrinsically. It is not based on how “valuable” they are to others, but rather on how each person is unique and valuable for who they are by just being themselves. In light of that, these values inform how we serve everyone who walks through the doors of CCPC, whether they be a billionaire or a homeless friend. These values have been embedded into the DNA of our culture as an organization.
My question for you is, how can you ensure that your values are both owned and lived out by your entire team?
Stay tuned for Part 2 to find out three ways you can do this.