Set a goal, not a means to a goal

Fight that you won. Set a goal, not a means to a goal. When dining out, you might not hesitate to order a $12 cocktail at a restaurant, but you'd think twice and even drive around the block a few times before paying the same amount for valet parking. You don't like to pay for parking because parking is by definition a means, it gets you into the restaurant and in front of the dinner plate you'd set your sights on. Similarly, shipping and gift wrapping fees are a means to the goal of getting your friend the perfect birthday present, and indeed, we dislike paying these fees. Many of us would rather pay a little extra for the gift and earn free delivery than pay a shipping fee. In general, we want to invest our resources in the goal, not in the means. This aversion to investing in means can have surprising effects. An experiment we conducted with our MBA students showed us that people are willing to spend more overall to avoid spending anything on a means. In our experiment, we auctioned an autographed book by a prominent economist. The average bid for the book was $23. We next auctioned a tote bag, which contained the same autograph book to another similarly enthusiastic group of students. While these students were technically bidding on a bag, the deal was superior, given that the highest bidder would win both a bag and a book. To our surprise, the average bidder was willing to pay only $12, significantly less than what bidders were willing to pay for the book alone. In economics terms, the value of the tote bag was negative, meaning that throwing it in decreased the value of the deal. The reason for this surprising result? It didn't feel right to pay that much for a bag whose only function was to carry a free book. People don't like to invest in means. When you are setting goals, try to define the goal in terms of benefits rather than costs. It's better to set your goal as finding a job rather than applying for a job. Achieving a goal is exciting, completing a means is a chore.