What Do Your Purchases Tell You?

Tony Ferrar
Jul 28, 2017 · 2 min read

I had a great conversation with someone the other day about marketing. He said that people buy solutions, not products. It’s good advice given to anyone trying to sell anything: if you hype your product and it’s features, no one will buy. If you talk about the need if meets in someone’s life? Well that’s a different story.

The famous example is Steve Jobs trying to sell an early Apple computer. Apparently he took out a multi page ad in one of othe most popular newspapers around. He quoted every performance statistic and feature of the new computer he made. The response? Silence.

After reworking the ad, he took out a single page add with the words, “think differently.” Those two words said it all: an Apple computer will help you stand out from the crowd and do something better than the mundane.

I’m not bringing this up to teach you how to sell. I’m bringing it up to ask you an important question:

What do the things you buy tell you about yourself?

If you buy to fill needs, then the products you purchase tell you what your needs are. Do you buy lots of entertainments? Maybe that tells you that you need distracting because you’re not satisfied in life. Lots of clothes? Maybe you feel a need to impress with your appearance because you don’t feel impressive with your actions.

Or maybe you just like comic books and bow ties.

The point is that you can learn a lot about yourself by reflecting on the things you are tempted to buy.

Sometimes you learn good things (I buy nonfiction books because I am passionate about growing as a person). Sometimes you learn things to improve (I’d rather buy another book than go through the hard work of implementing a life change based on the last one I read).

If you’d like to learn more about viewing your life through the lens of Intentionality, you should visit www.tonyferrar.com. I’m building an online community called the Intentional Academy. It’s for people like you who want to get control of their time, money, and careers. I’m about to launch a free class that I hope you’ll join us for. Find out more at www.tonyferrar.com/question.

If you found this meaningful, please share with others. Thanks, it means the world to me 😊

Tony Ferrar

Written by

Learner. Educator. Present-minded Professor. Founder of Intentional Academy. Find out more at www.tonyferrar.com/

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