Trading currency: Money or Time

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The other day, I was reading a message on my mobile which went like “… 20 years back, a man would walk 20 minutes to save Rs. 20/-. Today, a man spends Rs. 20/- to save 20 minutes…”.

At first glance nothing seemed unusual about this but then the profoundness of the message dawned over. The pace of life and the things which counted highly then, have changed.

Were we looking at a new currency of trading? Were we beginning to finally act in spirit of the famous phrase “Time is Money”?

As I pondered over this message and analysed my life in this context, I realized I was anyways acting in the spirit of this famous phrase. So what really has shaped our behavior? I think it’s a multiplicity of factors.

 
  • The multiplicity of choices before us.

A toothpaste meant Colgate, detergent meant Surf, cooking oil meant Dalda… for those of us who have been witness to such an era will vastly appreciate the plethora of choices we have now. A toothpaste has moved from just being a product to clean the teeth to a more functional segment – cleaning, shining, fresh breath, plaque, tartar, sensitivity….and not to forget the SKU’s. Even a visit to a mom & pop store is enough to boggle your mind. A simple buying process has suddenly been infested with choices and demands more consumer time and attention.

  • Never ending desire to outshine others and be recognized quickly.

It’s as if the world is coming to an end tomorrow and we have only today to accomplish all our tasks. I need to be recognized, earn name and fame before the guy next door or the colleague next to me… It’s as if all of us are only concerned with ‘social needs’ in Maslow’s hierarchy.

  • Love of the material things.

The status symbols in life have come to be defined by certain reference points – house, car, club, vacation destinations etc… The rush to satiate the appetite for all of this has resulted in race against time. This gets further accentuated when we start to feel that the only way to get more social recognition, is to have more of material things and we want that now and not later.

  • No barriers to information – internet.

The time required for the consumer to access information is just click of a mouse of a keyboard button away. While this puts him in an enviable position with respect to his ability to make choices, it also simultaneously consumes a lot of his time to sift through the maze of information.

  • The world is shrinking – increasing globalisation.

Breakfast in India, lunch in Dubai, and dinner in Europe  - all in a single day. This isn’t a figment of imagination, but a reality. There is hardly any food or fashion restricted to only a certain part of the world. The stock markets yo-yo in one corner of the globe, and the ECG of investors living thousands of miles away show disturbances. Facetime, google chat, skype have made physical distances redundant…you see people real time. Think global, act local has become all pervasive.

 
Views please….

By: Sumit Singh

Dated: 30th Nov, 2014

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