Accidental Events, Dreams & Travels in The Life of

Having access often beats ownership - both from a practical and a financial perspective. We are mentally conditioned to believe that ownership is the endgame, may that be cars, movies, furniture or a house. But taking the 30K foot view, it’s the unrestricted and unlimited access to all these things that we really value. The sense of ownership is to a certain extent a fabrication, a product by savvy (evil) marketing.

Today, most things are within comfortable wallet reach: rental cars, summer cabin, your pad, movies, music, furniture, travels and literature. None of these things needs to be owned (or tangible) to be fully enjoyed. Some things are practical or financially sound to own, like furniture, clothes and certain equipment. In some cases even your main residence. And prices for most things - except aspirational (i.e. luxury goods) products - has come down over the past 10 years.

But as everything is becoming abundant, cheaper with shorter shelf life and so easily accessible, behavior will change through experience and necessity and drive the need for new solutions. Just look at Zipcar - the car sharing company. They have made it financially possible to share cars with a bigger community of people in urban areas where parking is scarce and not everyday usage is needed. It’s “wheels when you want them”.

You can apply the same solution to bikes - a solution that is becoming very popular in European cities as Barcelona, Amsterdam, London and Paris - or gaming consoles and electronics.

The few things that is really beneficial to own can easily be resold via online marketplaces as Cragslist and eBay. Every-time I buy a new Apple gadget I sell an old one that I no longer use, usually for 50-70% of the original price. The same goes for furniture; they are just mass-produced dead things designed to solve a problem. When you can buy a chair that *looks* like it has been worn, you know that it’s all fake.

The real benefit of this approach is less clutter, more mobile and frugal lifestyle, much lower burn-rate and access to the coolest stuff in the world. Instead of spending the Saturday fixing the bathroom toilet you can cuddle up with a great library book in your soon to be sold sofa.

I think this is a mega-trend in the making that will free up time, money and attention; our most valuable and scarce commodities to be spent on growth, perspective and new insights.