April 28, 2018

They just want it

People want stuff.

Physical stuff like a mansion on Fire Island, or a Les Paul Custom electric guitar, or a Venti peppermint mocha from Starbucks.

Or emotional stuff, like a sense of belonging, or to be respected by their peers, or to be loved by their children.

Or experience stuff, like scaling Mount Everest, or seeing Hamilton on Broadway, or getting a calf massage.

Why people want stuff is close to impossible to determine. If someone asked me to explain exactly why I bought what I bought today, I’d be hard pressed to come up with anything more specific than “I wanted it” for any individual purchase.

(ASIDE: it would be more accurate to say “I wanted it more than I wanted the money that it cost me to buy it” but that’s a story for another day...)

Maybe I could come up with some post-facto rationales for this purchase or that, but by and large I would be unable to share - or even know - my own deepest underlying motivations.

But here’s the thing... it doesn’t matter why someone wants a particular thing or emotion or experience.

They just want it.

People are happy to pay for stuff they want. They do it every single day, repeatedly. So ask yourself:

If you answered “no” to any of these questions, you’ve got work to do.

Yours,

—J

P.S. Tomorrow, I’m going to officially launch my new book The Freelancer’s Roadmap. I’ll be sharing a 100% off coupon code, but I’m going to limit the number of redemptions. So... keep your eyes on your inbox if you want to get a copy for free. Cheers!

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