100-Year-Old Advice For Entrepreneurs Today

From the Recaps Archives posted on 4/27/2019

100-Year-Old Advice For Entrepreneurs Today
By   Christine McAlister

3 lessons from a little-known genius

“Making chalk mark on generator: $1  Knowing where to make mark: $9,999.”-Charles Proteus Steinmetz
 
Have you heard the story of the man who identified the cause of Henry Ford’s broken generator and charged him $10,000 — roughly $150,000–200,000 in today’s dollars — for this seemingly simple service?

Charles Steinmetz, circa 1915 (Image courtesy of Wikipedia)

My great-great Uncle Howard worked for Henry Ford and was witness to this event, and my dad got to hear this tale told at every holiday gathering growing up.

Why do I share this legendary lore now? 

I believe Mr. Steinmetz has a lot to teach entrepreneurs today.

Here are my three 100-year-old lessons I think all entrepreneurs today can learn from Mr. Steinmetz.

Lesson #1: Value Your Zone Of Genius

If you’re a service provider, you have probably been guilty of devaluing your work before.

It happens innocently enough. The fact is, when what we do is so easy for us and we get so much joy and energy from doing it, we tend to not place as high of a value on the actual process of completing it — and one way that often shows up is that we have a hard time charging premium prices for it!

“Why tip someone for a job I’m capable of doing myself? I can deliver food. I can drive a taxi. I can, and do, cut my own hair. I did, however, tip my urologist, because… I am unable to pulverize my own kidney stones.” — Dwight Schrute, The Office

Our favorite fictional straight-shooter summarizes this well. Dwight clearly places a higher value on something he himself cannot do. The problem comes when we do not place a higher value on what we do so well, because we forget that it doesn’t come as easily to others.

Have you ever felt or thought something like this?

“I would do it for free; so it feels weird to charge someone for it!”

“Can’t everyone do this? It’s so easy for me!”

When something comes so naturally to us and we love doing it, it DOESN’T mean that everyone can do it; it means that it’s very likely our Zone of Genius, and it is the very thing it would be wise to double-down on offering and charging for.

Have you found yourself saying these same things? How have you overcome them, or how will you begin to shift them now? 

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:
https://medium.com/thrive-global/100-year-old-advice-for-entrepreneurs-today-d8fad36256b1