I have some champagne flutes, they were a gift a few years back. I don’t want to be ungrateful, but I don’t like them. They’re as ugly as sin but my friend likes them, so I told her she could take them home.

Made up she said I didn’t appreciate how much they were worth. She went on to tell me about how they were made and how much they retail at. I wasn’t moved because I think they’re ugly, regardless of the price tag I don’t really value them over their functionality.

As business owners and leaders, we can sometimes hold ourselves back because we get all up in our heads about the concept of value.

We can get tied in knots about bringing enough value to the market, second guess ourselves, worry about the competition, question the price point, rework the offer, all kinds of stuff that doesn’t get us showing up.

Here’s the biggest thing that I’ve learned in this area…

You don’t get to assign value.

Value is something only your customer can assign and people are different.

It’s their ‘perception’ of value. It’s not necessarily linked to the cost of production, or the time taken to produce it. It has more to do with its ability to do the job the customer wants doing.

Functionally the flutes are fine. But I don’t want bling. If you think the job of a Rolex is just about telling the time you missed the real job.

The principle is that value is made up. You can’t define it in a vacuum.

Where have you held yourself back worrying about your value?