A few months ago, my phone stopped accepting Wifi—it just basically refused to accept that Wifi existed. And, while I have a data plan, I burned through that pretty quickly.
I really didn’t love shelling out $800 for a new iPhone (spread out over several monthly payments, thank you) but I had to. I mean, how could I exist without a cell phone? It’s practically an investment, right?
Wrong. Let’s not confuse things here—even if it would make it a little easier to stomach the price tag. A phone is a purchase. I buy it and it only ever loses value.
And for some reason, I’m totally fine with that. That’s the price of living, right?
So why is it that we’re totally fine(ish) paying through the nose for a phone or a car or clothes or whatever and when it comes to something that will really benefit us…we’ve got a problem spending the money?
If you ask me, what it comes down to is instant gratification versus delayed gratification. Before I started buying the kinds of business courses and professional development courses that helped me create FRW and helped me develop my copywriting business, I’d look at those courses and think… “Well, yeah, that could help me…but I could do so much with that money now.”
But here’s the thing: The premise of all of those courses was that if I put in the time and the work now, my life would be exponentially better later on—and often, financially.
That’s what separates a purchase from an investment. A purchase is something you buy and that only loses value. An investment is something that you purchase and that increases in value—and maybe even pays for itself, many times over.
And here’s something you can take to heart: The only kind of investment you can truly rely on is an investment in yourself. You can invest in real estate or the stock market or something like that, but you can’t really control whether that investment will increase in value.
But when you invest in yourself, you control the payoff. You control how much it pays you back.
It’s not always fun (in the moment) to choose a course or a training or some kind of development over a phone or shoes or a night out, but the payoff, in the long run, can’t compare.
The very best way to spend your money? The very best investment you can make? Make an investment in yourself and in your future. And then make that investment pay off.
Beautifully said. One if the hard things about writing copy is getting this message across to your potential customer.
Hi Stefan,
Thank you! And yes – absolutely. Clients know that they need copy, but they’re often very gun-shy about actually making the commitment to hire someone to do it. And, as you say, that’s a big part of the job: Painting the picture for them of the benefits they’ll see after they do. 🙂
Thanks for commenting!
Nicki