Yesterday, I had a presentation about personal finance with my coach. He taught me about cost and value. There was a question: "A Louis Vuitton shirt costs about $900.00 but a normal shirt only costs about $2 to $2.5 in Vietnam. As you can see, the two shirts are for the same purposes but the first one costs as 450 times as the second. Why on Earth is such a huge difference?"
First of all, Louis Vuitton is a luxury brand with a history of centuries, every shirt is designed, made carefully with the best quality, and limited in quantity. In addition, there are all kinds of costs such as marketing costs, sponsoring, employees' salaries,... Meanwhile, a normal shirt has no origin or mass production and we can easily see it in the streets. That is why the cost can be effortlessly calculated while the value cannot.
Why the value cannot be calculated? Let's look through the following instance: a bottle of water now has a price of $0,2 in Vietnam, but if I sell it at the price of $10, will you purchase it? I bet you will not buy it, right? However, let's imagine you are in a desert, you are about to die, if I sell this bottle of water at the price of $100, will you buy it? For me, I will purchase it. As you can see, the value of this bottle varies according to the context. Exactly, the value can vary according to times and context and it can be different for different people.
The way I see it, people are similar to objects. Each person has their own value and no one can define their value but themselves. What you had done, are doing and will do can help you define your value. Moreover, you don't have to care what people are gossiping about you as your value varies according to time and context and it is different for different people. All you can do is be yourselves, love yourselves and do what you are pursuing.
