A business contact of my wife likes to swing the term “high value” (or its negation) at everything within reach like a hyperactive kid at a piñata-party. I haven’t seen him apply it to people yet, but the way he sometimes sounds wouldn’t surprise me at all.

The general context is event management, so he wants every advertisement, every presentation, every service provider’s social media profiles and generally everything to be “high value” in order to get “high value” customers. He’ll frown on certain promo channels not because they’re ineffective, but because they reach the “wrong audience” and once you’ve established yourself in a certain price range, it’s really hard to rebrand for a “higher value” range.

God forbid you would willingly cater to people not willing to drop six figures on a private party. His argument isn’t even that this range isn’t enough for a sustainable, comfortable living, just that it’s not worth it if you could also go for “high value”.

If he hasn’t already, I’m pretty sure one day he’ll end up calling a person not “high value” enough.