Why giving people free stuff hurts them

I love it when people say:

“If the work you’re doing is THAT important, why don’t you just give it away for free?”

Everybody knows someone who has an attitude like this.

Don’t you love it when people get these ideas?

As if, charging money for a thing of value is somehow evil?

The power of the word “free” is very motivating to humans.

But the truth is,

”Free” Comes With A
Bigger Price Than “Paid”.

When someone who COULD do for themselves chooses NOT to do — and then asks someone ELSE to do FOR them — they might get free stuff out of the deal.

But the price they pay is heads and shoulders higher than if they had just paid their own way.

They pay in the hit to the respect others have for them.

They pay in the perception shift — that is created when their actions clearly show them to be a “taker” and not a “giver”.

And worst of all, they pay in the damage done to their own internal self-image.

And self-image is of utmost importance if you want massive success. Free-seekers are not aware of it, but it is baggage that gets pretty heavy if you ignore it.

BUT on the opposite end of the spectrum…

When you gift something to someone who never asks for anything, it makes them uncomfortable.

You could say they have issues “receiving,” but that might not be the issue. The issue might simply be the dissonance they feel with an exchange where half of it is missing.

For people who have no sense of their own value, things are very different.

You offer them something for free — and what do they do?

They ask for more!

And then, they often complain.

Free-seekers complain the most out of everybody. They complain more about the things they get for free than the people who paid for the same thing.

Don’t believe me? Try it in your business if you can. It never fails to happen. It’s actually pretty funny if you can stand back far enough to see the irony…

That can be a challenge in business. The group of people who want more for less, or something for nothing, is often the noisiest group.

So it’s not hard to find yourself catering to folks like this simply because they’re complaining the loudest.

They drown everyone else out.

But life is too short to do that.
Trust me.

Next time someone wants everything for FREE (or a drastically reduced price), here’s a way to deal with it:

First off, if you have the type of product/service/idea where you can serve 1 person as easily as 1,000 people, then you shouldn’t mind offering things for free when you choose. But only when you choose, if you choose to at all.

But if you offer something that takes your life force, your energy, your money and time investment, and directs it at a client or customer?

Then don’t even flirt with the idea of “free”.

Because you can really hurt someone that way. Not only yourself, but your customer, too.

You can damage them greatly by dumping that stinking, smoldering pile of “free” on their head…

The damage comes from you helping to perpetuate a worldview that is destructive to their inner belief of their OWN value.

This is worth reading twice, or over and over until you get it:

People Who Truly Value Themselves
Do Not Want Free Crap All The Time.

They understand equal and opposite forces. The yin and the yang. The give and the get.

This CAN be true to a lesser extent even for discounts.

So how do you want to deal with “free” in your reality?

Decide on your answer, stick to it, and make no apologies.