When we are children at school, going through the grades, there are many projects we are assigned.
We get good at doing things. But do our schools teach us how “value creation” really works?
Let’s first look at how we think value creation works:
See above, how over time, the value we create goes up as the task becomes completed.
This seems right, because it is the way we are trained.
We are trained to think that when we have half-way written our essay, we are half-way done. That half the value of the task has been contributed.
But is that really the case?
Not really, no.
The real world doesn’t reward things that are half-way done. Or even 95% done.
Below is a more accurate graph of the value creation process:
It’s the act of finishing that turns all our efforts into a return.
Look how the value we contribute is negative (an opportunity cost) right up until the job is finished. The time of maximum danger is not the beginning of a task, it is just before the very end. Because until something is finished there is no value. There is only a loss of potential.
I often have to remind myself to break jobs down into smaller completable tasks. To release small amounts of value more often. To work the extra hour and get the job finished.