Add Value, Revisited

I’ve often been asked, “What can I do to be successful in business?

My answer has evolved over time, but my basic message is simple:  Add value.

What can you do with a pen and a sheet of paper?  Write the Constitution of the United States, or a poem, or a love letter.  What can you do with metal, cloth, and glass?  Build an automobile.  What can you do with your time?  Hopefully, an activity that will add value to your own life as well as to the lives of others.

One of the best examples I know of a person who adds value to everything he does is Tim Green, the editor of the poetry journal Rattle.  Tim is often asked, about the size of his staff at Rattle.  College-sponsored literary journals might have as many as a dozen employees. But the staff of Rattle consists of just two people. Tim and his wife.

I can’t even begin to list all the value Tim adds to Rattle.  Everyone who reads it should realize that Tim is not just the editor.  He is the subscription department, the submission department, the advertising department, and every other department that is needed.

Rattle has as many as 150,000 poems submitted each year.  Tim and his staff of one narrow this number to about 600, and every three weeks it is my pleasure to meet with Tim to review thirty or forty of the poems that he and his staff like best.  They add value.

But adding value doesn’t just apply to being successful in business. You can also add value to people around you every day. Why not say a kind word to the checker at the grocery store or give the person delivering your package a smile? Why not do something extra nice for your loved ones for no reason other than because you love them and want to add value to their lives (as well as your own).

On a personal note, I always feel happy (and sometimes relieved) when I finish my weekly blog, which I have written regularly for more than eight years. I hope my work adds value to your life, as it does to mine.

I wish you a week filled with added value.

Alan