Dog Walk Philosophy: Use And Relevance
There is a saying that I have lived by. You are as relevant as you are useful. Your opportunities are directly tied to the utility you can provide others.
Relevancy is the key to just about everything we want in life. Our ability to be useful is what gets the stakeholders in our lives to open the door to those wants.
For example, your skill and work ethic is what makes you useful at work. That usefulness is makes you relevant to your employer and in turn, they pay your salary, provide benefits, and most importantly, don’t fire you.
Relevance and use work in our personal lives as well. You provide use to the person you love. That use could be practical (food shelter), emotional (support and understanding), or (hopefully) some combination of the two. Meeting your partner’s level of use determines whether or not that love is reciprocated.
Yes, I’m being very reductive. Professional and personal relationships are extremely complex but in my experience use and relevance are at the core of everything.
Some see this as a pessimistic way to view life and the world. For me, it is a very lucid way of understanding value and reciprocity. More importantly, it requires me to have a deep understanding of my personal and professional value. This understanding ensures two very important things. One, I don’t get used by those who would purposely undervalue my usefulness. Two, I don’t overvalue my usefulness and effectively price myself out of opportunities.
Instead of hoping for a random opportunity, I offer some nugget of value to show that I am capable of the larger thing.
Currently, there is a person whose book I would love to help write. But, I don’t have a completed book on my resume. How can I expect this person to hire me for something I haven’t actually done before? I offer to help write the book proposal. It’s the document people use to sell their book idea. It usually comes with a proposed table of contents, a couple of chapters, and a general sales pitch. I would do this for free in hopes of landing my larger goal. Co-authoring the book.
Even if I don’t land the book I walk away with a book proposal I wrote for a prominent figure which becomes my calling card for future opportunities.
Be useful. The world won’t be able to deny your relevance.
