Don't Do Anything For Free

At first you might disagree with this but please have an open-mind to consider it in the context I’m about to provide. I’m confident that will change. The perspective is that you shouldn’t do anything for free.

This doesn’t mean that you need to charge people money for everything you do. Conventionally when we think of doing things for “free” we see it through the lens of a transaction. But money is just one form of currency, a way to exchange value, and there are many other forms of currency you can utilize. 

But it also doesn’t mean that you need to be transactional and calculated about everything you do. That’s not being abundant and certainly not something that maximizes the impact you can have on the world. In fact I encourage you to be more generous with your time, energy, network, and resources than is comfortable for you. Even and especially when you have no plan to get anything in return. 

What I really mean is that you should never allow yourself to label what you give others as free. There’s an immense amount of value, experience, and intention put into what you share, and calling it “free” discredits all of that. It diminishes it down to nearly nothing.

When something is presented as free, that’s how others receive it. They value it less. This is exactly the opposite of the intention to maximize how helpful you can be. You’re giving it freely because you want it to be accessible and useful, you want it to influence and impact, but things that are free are simply undervalued.

That’s why you shouldn’t do anything for free - it belittles what you have to offer and sets it up to be fractionally impactful. 

So this is what I propose you do instead… Present what you’re providing for free as a gift that you’re giving. When you choose to give someone a gift, they don’t ‘owe’ you anything for it. But they receive it knowing the time, effort, and thought that went into it. They see the value in it because they know it’s valuable and you have chosen to cover the cost so that they can enjoy it at no cost.

Please be abundant, generous, unselfish and freely giving of your gifts and talents. But make sure they’re appreciated and valued so that they can go off and do the good in the world that they’re meant to!