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It used to be about ownership. The market demanded clothes and shoes, bread to eat, and houses to live in. Because they needed these things. And companies provided these things.

Now that everyone has these things already (at least in the Western world), the game has changed.

Now it’s all about utility.

Demand is no longer for things that are necessary, demand is for things that help accomplish tasks. When the task is complete, things are no longer useful. So we discard them.

Before, this phenomenon was illustrated by thrift shops, flea markets, or second hand shops. Recently, companies and products like Redbox, Pandora, and even YouTube have brought this use-it-and-lose-it philosophy to the entertainment sphere. More recently, SaaS.

I’m suspecting that this utility paradigm is about to creep into other sectors of consumer demand. Consumers don’t care about ownership any more.

We just want the job done.

Fun is not the first priority for these girls out here. If they wanted fun, they shouldn’t have been on varsity 

-Head Varsity Tennis Coach.

….because the Varsity team is serious competition for serious players looking for serious results in serious times. Because everyone wants to be a winner, and the only way to be a winner is to win more matches than you lose. And the only way to win more matches is to work hard. And the only way to work hard…is to be serious.

Or so the paradigm goes.

In the short term, that strategy works well. If I have to win this weekend (a match, an exam, a presentation, a recital), then I can work hard now and see the results.

But what if the date of the reward is next year? or 10 years from now? Will the reward still motivate me to work hard? Probably not.

The only consistent short term reward is one that can exist in isolation; one that is provided by the activity performed or by the performer. Fun.

The responsibility of an educator or instructor, then, is twofold:

1. to teach the mechanics of the activity, and
2. to teach the student the ability to reward himself/herself consistently.

In other words, the educator must be able to give the student the ability to have fun in the activity performed.

Only then can the student experience long term improvement, and consequently, success.

This year, we’ve added a few rules and regulations to the club to make sure everyone is doing their part. In the past a lot of members have slacked off, so we have decided to be more strict. In addition to previous years, we require that members….

When people don’t drive at safe speeds, we make a law titled “speed limit” and judge penalties for non-adherence.

When companies don’t contribute to the welfare of society, we make laws that force them to contribute and call it “taxation.”

When individuals don’t take responsibility for their mistakes and actions, we create entire court systems to determine who should pay the price and call the result a “fine” or “prison.”

Apart from the fact that all laws are based on not allowed, instead of what is encouraged, it is interesting to note that policies and regulations do nothing for the long term betterment of human nature. If someone is inclined to drive fast, a white rectangle with a number does little to eliminate that inclination (except by fear of an undesired consequence). Without the white board then, the same person will drive just as fast and dangerously.

The goal of lawmaking and politics should not be to encourage or discourage dependent action; action that is not intrinsically desirable to the subject in mind.

Instead, the goal should be to create that intrinsic desire in individuals, organizations, and businesses, to do the right thing. To make decisions with good and pure intentions.

Rather than discourage “bad” action, lawmakers should aim to motivate good action on a deeper level than just temporary rewards, so that the idea of “good” exists even without a clear reward. Just like the movie.

Conquering a fear, or as Seth Godin puts it, conquering the lizard brain, is a never ending process.

In March 2010 (and let this be the official declaration), my friend David and I decided to take the first step towards a lifestyle that everyone wants, but few are willing to create. We started a business. In the beginning, I was worried about websites and documentation and logos, etc. I wanted to be “ready” before we officially launched. And so, David and I spent a lot of time talking and thinking.

But that’s all we did. Talk and think. The timetable was getting shorter and deadlines were getting closer. So we finally shipped. I put together a subpar website, David made a logo in MS Powerpoint, and we skipped most of the documentation.

And we started selling.

For a while, our fears were laid to rest, because we were busy. We were active. But that time has passed. And the fears have returned. I call them fears, not in the same sense as a fear of heights or the dark, but as a recurring tendency to give up. As much as we (I) try to ignore it, the tendency remains somewhere, waiting for the right time to attack.

Are human beings inherently fearless and able to act without fear of failure or success? Or, as Seth Godin says, is it human nature to doubt and fear, and the only way to overcome, is to develop a dependable technique for temporarily dealing with it every time?