There are two types of value. One is perceived value and the other is true value. It is like how when your friend is asking for your opinions, you can either tell him the truth about how you feel or choose to make him happy by telling him what he wants to hear. Most of the time he would have already decided subconsciously and is only asking for your validation.

In creative arts, there are those that follows the marketplace and those that create what they want to create. Perceived value is following the masses and creating something based on demand. The more someone want something, the more it will seem like something valuable. So an artist creates for the masses thinking that this is what others want. The other type of artist choose to be himself and produces something that makes the most out of his potential. It might not be what others appreciates but nevertheless he pours his heart and soul into his creations. In most cases, it is the only thing that he knows best because it comes from a deep part of his being, his unique individuality.

It will be a long and arduous road for this unique being because he will be misunderstood. He goes away from the crowd and it will take time for the crowd to understand him. This contrast is so great that sometimes people will not notice the gift he or she brings. It is through this contrast that he or she grows the most. As a result, others will receive something special from that someone who have come alive, who have chosen to share his or her unique abilities and talent. This gift has never came this way in the past nor will it ever happen again in the future. If it is not realized, it will be lost forever in existence.

Perceived value is liking what other people like, giving what others give. In short it is about joining the competition by making more of the same things. It becomes a race towards price wars, profits and of putting more features on something that is old and treating it as new. We start to join the masses and do what others do. This results in something far from being revolutionary and because of that, uniqueness is lost. It becomes the icing on the cake but underneath, the cake is the same.

True value is given in cold hard truth. It is given by someone who has the courage to be themselves and to be able to march to his own beat. The journey will be challenging and that is why it is rare for someone to come alive and be themselves in a way that they only know how. It will be frightening to walk alone and wait for the light at the end of the tunnel. The tunnel is long and cold and sometimes it will seem that the light will never come. Once in a while, someone brave enough will walk this tunnel just so he can surprise himself with what he might find at the end of the tunnel…eventually.