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How to Put a Price on Work You Actually Love to Do
Your unique interests and abilities are worth more than you think — if you can help your customers see their value
The 20th century was defined by a simple binary, with money, stability, and routinization on one side and passion, personal expression, and financial uncertainty on the other. Today, that is no longer the case. Technology and trade have destroyed the widget economy of the last century to give birth to what I call the Passion Economy. To succeed financially in this economy we must embrace our unique passions — those interests and abilities that make each of us different — while also seeking out novel ways to match our particular set of passions with those people who most value them.
I wrote a book about this idea, inspired by the people I met who have figured this out — from a boutique accountant overturning his industry and refusing to charge by the hour, to low-tech innovators in the Amish farming community — all of whom combine clear financial goals with personal passion and joy, and whose stories I tell in my book. In the process of studying how these people find success, I learned that they follow a set of pricing rules that completely upend traditional notions of how prices should be determined. Here are the new rules of passion pricing…
