Holistic view

Since value is subjective, we can only think about it in the whole context of an organization, and not within the boundaries of a single project. The value of the product of a project depends on every other project and operation in the organization, both now and in the future, as well as its high-level strategies, and even sometimes politics and regulations in the country or the world. The output of your project may have a certain value in your original setup, but a while later when you create another product with a new project, they can empower each other and increase the value of the first product. Therefore, even those possibilities for the future should be considered when evaluating the project.

Many years ago, I decided to stop working with publishers and self-publish my work as ebooks. It was a good decision, and my benefits from books increased about 20 fold. I even started buying back the publishing rights of my old books from the publishers and selling them as ebooks on my own website. In case you’re wondering, I’m not doing it anymore, because my opportunity cost has increased. Nevertheless, something interesting I had realized was that each time I published a new book, it increased the sales of the other books by 5 to 15%, which is a great example of the complex, holistic nature of value.