Cost is almost always a story problem, not a resource problem.

“Too hard” or “too expensive” are code for “not enough value.”

If I offered you tickets to a high school basketball game for $1,000, you would think I’m crazy.

If I offered you courtside tickets to the NBA finals for $1,000, you would be crazy to turn me down (it’s worth 10-100x that amount). No matter how tight your budget is, you would probably find the money.

Whenever someone doesn’t have enough money/time/resources, what they’re actually saying is…

“I don’t believe this thing will provide more value than it will cost me.”

The question, then, isn’t, “how do I make this easier/cheaper?”

The question is, “how do I elevate the value so it’s worth the price?”

Value is driven by stories. So what story is being told?

An NBA Finals game isn’t guaranteed to be 1000x better than a high school game. But the story is 1000x better. It’s a story of status, significance, and lifelong memories.

If you’ve seen the prestige of sitting courtside at an NBA game, and you see yourself as that kind of person, then you get the value.

If I wanted to sell tickets to a high school basketball game for $1,000, I would need to have strong enough stories attached to that experience to elevate the value to that level.

Going to the gym every day is a high price to pay for fitness. You’ll quit unless you have a strong enough story to elevate the value over the cost.

Stories are tools of association. They’re how we determine what kind of person we are.

The goal isn’t to become a person who pays the cost when they don’t want to. The goal is to become the kind of person who pays the cost because people like me do that sort of thing.

Cost is an indicator of how strongly people are aligned with the story.

Maybe the story isn’t good enough. (And maybe the price needs to reflect the real value of the story.)

Maybe the story hasn’t been communicated well enough.

Maybe it’s not as obvious and repetitive as it should be.

Or maybe it’s just not the story they identify with…and that’s okay.

But cost is a story problem, not a resource problem.