I have a new personal maxim. For myself. And a new personal standard for the people I spend time with, both socially & professionally, in 2012.

Create more value than you capture. ~Tim O’Reilly

As we grow our business, I’m finding than the type of people that are worth my time follow this maxim, whether consciously or unconsciously.

Think about the traits of someone who creates more value than they capture..

• charisma (social value)
• intellect (informational value)
• humility (social value)
• generosity (societal value)
• leadership (societal value)
• abundance (monetary & otherwise)

as opposed to someone that doesn’t.

• neediness (social non-value)
• sloth (monetary non-value)
• cheapness (monetary non-value)
• envy (emotional non-value)
• greed (emotional non-value)

Reads like a list of universally attractive / unattractive traits of human nature.

Take a look at businesses that create more value than they capture..

• search engines
• social networks
• NGOs
• doctors
• retail stores

as opposed to ones that doesn’t.

• cable companies
• banks companies
• insurance companies

Reads like a list of industries that are ripe for disruption huh?

I think that attraction to value must be something that’s deeply evolved into the psychology of all social animals.

After reading Steve Job’s biography this past week, I was struck at how much time he spent adding value to his products. According to the book, his successor, John Sculley, was more interested in attempting to milk profits from Apple’s products than Steve. When Steve came back in the late 90s, the turnaround was tremendous. Great product = value to the user = success.

See you in 2012.