Market value is simply the price a commodity/asset would fetch or trade in a competitive marketplace. The world as we have come to understand is an open marketplace where everyone is selling one thing or the other. Whether it’s a friend asking another friend for an idea or an influencer on social media influencing her/his followers to buy into a particular brand, or a politician campaigning for public office; everyone is selling something.

It is important to know that whatever we are selling, its price has to be commensurate with the value it would bring to the table. When we enroll in a school to get educated, we pay the required tuition, what we would expect to get in return is an all-round educational intelligence that’ll enable us to compete in an educational or intelligence marketplace. However, two people may attend the same school, study the same course, graduate at the same time and still get different grades. That could be a genetical logic because even Siamese twins don’t have the same mental wirings. We all grasp and see things differently.

Due to our genetical differences, two people are not the same. Though all first class graduates may have similar IQs, it doesn’t guarantee that they possess the same open market value. In today’s marketplace, you don’t get paid for showing up or for just your level of education. You get paid for the value you can provide an organisation. Your value is measured by the amount of problems you can find creative solutions to.

As an entrepreneur, I understand that to get my customers to pay me, I’ll have to design a product that matches their needs, get it to the shelf near them at a very competitive price and if the customers finds my product valuable, they’ll come back for repurchase and also choose my product above all others.

When a company wants to hire for a position, they carry out both internal and external advertisements to source for candidates to fill the position. For example, let’s say they get about 10 candidates who applied for the role, they may filter their resumes and settle for 5 people. The interview process would commence and they would schedule interview dates with potential candidates.

Keep in mind the company’s representatives have a notion of who exactly they want for the job and the interview process is just to determine who they feel have the right characteristics and qualifications for the position. During the interview, if you don’t tick the boxes of what they need to hear or how they need to feel, they may decide to go “a different route”. The purpose of the interview was to mentally analyse if you possess the value you’d be expected to deliver to the organisation and if they can’t feel it, you’re out – it’s that simple.

As individuals, our lifelong experiences, choices, decisions, values, achievements, talent and transferable skillsets have a huge impact on the person we would/have become. There is a story behind every person you cross path with in life, hence our experiences play a significant role in our worth as a person. In essence, the quality of our personality determines our market value.

I believe that every individual has value no matter how minute it may seem that they are contributing to the world. I remember in year 1996 when Nigerian National team were playing football somewhere in Atlanta, the role of the cheer squad was not just to cheer the players on but to cheer all Nigerians to mentally remind ourselves that regardless of what happened, we were winners. What that did to the players and we the watcher’s psyche cannot be quantified – we did win a gold medal.

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There are ways to improve your market value.

1 – Be authentic. I put this first because you cannot get much done in today’s world without being your authentic self. We live at a time where “fake it till you make it” is the norm but I always ask, for how long? The best thing about being true to your self is that you build trust, project reliability and consistency – an important attribute but is lacking in so many areas of life. Before you buy Coca Cola, you already know the flavour and you’ll expect it to taste the same as it did when you drank it 10 years ago. If it tastes like champagne, you’d immediately know that there’s a defect in the product. Though being authentic makes you predictable, regardless being grounded in who you are in the morning, afternoon and at night gives you the peace of mind needed to sail through life seamlessly.

2 – Leverage your passion. As we grow older, life becomes more hectic as our responsibility increases hence the saying life is not a bed of roses. Despite the strong demeanour we may be projecting to our friends and associates, we all are dealing with a lot behind the scene. The worst thing anyone can do to themselves is to be in a job or position that doesn’t ignite passion and doesn’t give the feeling of fulfilment. When you add all of life’s challenges on top of having to spend the most productive part of your life working on something that doesn’t gives you inner joy, that’s a recipe for burnout and failure. Working optimally requires your full attention and by nature, humans give attention to what they are passionate about.

3 – Seek new opportunities. One of the ways to improve your market value is to seek out new opportunities. Whether you own a business or are employed, it is important not to get comfortable with the status quo. As a business owner, you need partnerships that’ll propel your business forward towards reaching new heights or quota. A step up is mandatory for career growth. Find new ways to add value to yourself, your resume or your business. Doing that will not not equip you for the challenges ahead but will position you strategically for success.

4 – Form strategic relationships. There’s a saying that “the bond you create with people will take you much further with them than your product ever will.” Aligning with people who compliments our weakness with their strengths not just reflects how emotionally intelligent we are, it is one of the fundamental principles of success. Form alliances with different people from different walks of life, you may need them at some point in the course of your life.

5 – Be valuable. When you enter a grocery shop, you’ll be welcome with thousands of product. Each product represents value. A customers comes into the shop to find a product that will provide value. A product that serves no need have no business being on the shelf, if it does – it’s just taking up space. Same with people, there’s no reason for an employer to employ workers without a definitive role carved out for them. Equally, it is irrelevant for a job seeker to accept a position without the willingness to bring optimum professionalism to the role. Be it a product or an employee, the bottom line is to be valuable to whoever needs your services.

A business or an individual that offers no value is not sustainable and cannot survive in any economy or organisation. Everything begins and ends with value in the marketplace. Though it may not seem like it, we live in a world of quid pro quo – you relinquish something to get something. To be financially free, you’d first have to be financially literate. To get to your destination, you’ll first have to take the first step. Even to get to heaven, you’ll first have to die – no pun intended.

Your life, your decision. It’s all up to you to either lay low or pursue the kind of life you want for yourself. At the end of the day, the ball is in your court.