TL;DR

Business isn't about selling things—it's about creating beneficial energy transfers that improve people's lives. When viewed through this lens, entrepreneurship becomes something more beautiful and purposeful than mere commerce.

The great opportunity in front of every business leader isn't to "disrupt" or "innovate" in abstract terms—it's to identify the activation barriers that stand between humans and the benefits they seek, then systematically lower those barriers.

The most profound insight might be this: In building businesses that respect the irrational, emotional nature of humans, we don't just create more successful companies—we create more humane ones. There's dignity in acknowledging that the customer who wants a ridiculously expensive candle isn't stupid; they're human. They're seeking an emotional benefit that matters deeply to them, even if it seems frivolous to others.

When you stop trying to "create value" and instead start reducing the energy required to deliver benefit, you become not just a better entrepreneur—you become a better human. You're not extracting value; you're smoothing the path between people and their wellbeing, whether that's defined as basic necessity or extravagant luxury.

Take one offering you have today and ask: "How can I lower the energy it takes to receive this benefit?" Your next innovation might start there. Can you eliminate a step? Simplify an explanation? Remove a fear? Accelerate delivery?

In the thermodynamics of business, the most profound success comes not from creating new desires or needs, but from becoming the lowest-energy pathway to fulfilling the human desires and needs that already exist—rational or not.

The best businesses aren't energy extractors. They're energy optimizers for the gloriously irrational creatures we all are.

Lowering the Activation Barrier to Human Benefit

What Are We Really Talking About When We Discuss Business?

"Value proposition." "Value-add." "Value creation." Business buzzwords like "value" dominate our conversations about commerce and entrepreneurship—but what do they actually mean? When we strip away the jargon, what are we really talking about?

Let's replace "value" with the word "benefit"—a clearer, more human word that actually points to what people care about. Benefit is tangible. It's felt. It answers the question: "How is someone's life improved by what you're offering?"

When we strip business to its essence, it's simply the efficient delivery of benefit. The best businesses work like optimized chemical reactions: lowering the activation energy required to get humans what they want or need. This thermodynamic lens offers a refreshingly clear way to understand why some businesses thrive while others struggle.

What happens when we stop thinking about abstract value and start focusing on concrete human benefit?

Why Should We Replace 'Value' With Something More Real?

The problem with "value" is that it's vague and slippery. It feels abstract, undefined, and corporate. When someone says they're "creating value," we're left wondering: Value to whom? For what? By whose measure?

"Benefit," by contrast, is better in almost every way:

• It's tangible and emotional rather than abstract and financial

• It centers the recipient rather than the provider

• It's easy to test: "What benefit does this provide, and how does it feel to the person receiving it?"

Consider the difference between Uber and traditional taxis. The conventional view might focus on "value" in terms of market efficiency or competitive pricing. But the benefit perspective reveals something more fundamental: Uber reduces uncertainty, eliminates the friction of payment, and provides real-time visibility into your transportation status. The benefit isn't just a potentially cheaper fare—it's peace of mind, convenience, and time saved.

When Netflix replaced video rental stores, the surface-level "value" was access to movies without late fees. But the true benefit was transforming entertainment from a planned event requiring travel into an instant, on-demand experience accessible from your couch. The benefit isn't just watching movies—it's effortless escape from boredom or stress.

How might your perception of your own business change if you stopped asking "what value are we creating?" and started asking "what benefit are we delivering?"

How Do Thermodynamic Principles Apply to Business Success?

In chemistry, every reaction has an "activation energy"—the energy required to get things moving. This is why a match needs to be struck to start a fire, even though the burning process itself releases far more energy than it consumes once it's going.

Business operates on remarkably similar principles. There's always an activation threshold: how much effort/time/money/emotion must be invested before someone receives the benefit you're offering?

The profound insight is this: Great businesses reduce the activation energy between desire and delivery.

• Amazon reduced the activation energy between wanting a product and receiving it

• Peloton reduced the activation energy between intending to exercise and actually doing it

• DoorDash reduced the activation energy between hunger and food

Even businesses that don't seem revolutionary through other lenses become remarkable when viewed through the thermodynamic metaphor. Consider the humble electric toothbrush: it doesn't fundamentally change what tooth-brushing accomplishes, but it dramatically lowers the energy required to brush effectively.

Traditional businesses often unintentionally create high activation barriers: complex purchasing processes, steep learning curves, delayed gratification, or emotional friction like embarrassment or confusion. Every step that requires customer effort is a potential point of abandonment.

What activation barriers might exist between your customers and the benefit you're providing them?

What Role Do Emotions Play in Business Energy Transfer?

A critical insight emerges when we adopt this energy-centric view: humans are not rational actors—they are energetic and emotional beings.

Your business is not serving a demographic. It's serving someone tired, stressed, bored, hungry, scared, curious, excited, or hopeful. These aren't just psychological states—they are energy states, as real as physical exhaustion.

Let's be honest—sometimes the "benefit" people seek might seem ridiculous through a purely rational lens. A $300 sleeping bag rated for Everest conditions when you live in Miami? A Bentley for your 15-minute commute on pothole-filled roads? A skincare routine with 17 steps when soap has worked fine for centuries?

But here's the uncomfortable truth: we're not the rational, efficiency-focused automatons that business textbooks make us out to be. We're essentially large emotional children who just want ice cream and crowns. We want to feel special, safe, desired, important, and understood—and we'll pay astonishing amounts of money to businesses that can deliver those feelings with minimal effort on our part.

Good business meets humans where they are energetically and lowers the energy needed to transition to a better state:

• A tired parent needs dinner without cooking (DoorDash)

• A stressed professional needs to unwind quickly (Netflix)

• An overwhelmed small business owner needs simplified accounting (QuickBooks)

• Someone insecure about their appearance needs to feel attractive (luxury fashion)

• A person craving adventure but fearing risk needs the gear that makes them feel adventurous without leaving their comfort zone (REI)

Even luxury goods, often dismissed as frivolous, can be understood through this lens. A premium watch doesn't just tell time—it reduces the energy needed to feel confident, successful, or connected to tradition. The benefit isn't the object itself, but the emotional state it enables with minimal additional effort.

This perspective transforms how we might think about the "customer journey"—less as a linear path and more as an "energy pathway" with hills to climb and valleys to descend.

How would your approach to business change if you designed primarily around emotional energy states rather than demographic profiles?

How Can We Design Better Benefit-Delivery Systems?

When building a business through this thermodynamic lens, three questions become essential:

1. What is the desired emotional or practical benefit?

2. How much effort is currently required to get it?

3. How can I reduce that effort? (Time, money, cognitive load, decision fatigue)

This framework applies universally across industries:

In SaaS: The value isn't in the software's features but in reducing the learning curve to get the benefit. Notion didn't succeed because it had more features than Evernote—it succeeded because it made complex information management feel effortless and playful.

In Coaching: The benefit isn't information (which is widely available) but in reducing doubt and confusion. Great coaches create clear, low-friction pathways to implementation.

In Retail: The benefit isn't the product itself but the emotional state it enables. Apple's retail experience reduces the activation energy between technological confusion and confident usage.

Even traditional services can be reimagined: A law firm that communicates in plain English instead of legalese is reducing the activation energy of understanding one's legal position. A doctor with a simple online booking system is reducing the activation energy of health maintenance.

What single friction point, if removed, would most dramatically lower the energy barrier between your customers and their desired benefit?

What If Business Is More Art Form Than Transaction?

Business isn't about selling things—it's about creating beneficial energy transfers that improve people's lives. When viewed through this lens, entrepreneurship becomes something more beautiful and purposeful than mere commerce.

The great opportunity in front of every business leader isn't to "disrupt" or "innovate" in abstract terms—it's to identify the activation barriers that stand between humans and the benefits they seek, then systematically lower those barriers.

The most profound insight might be this: In building businesses that respect the irrational, emotional nature of humans, we don't just create more successful companies—we create more humane ones. There's dignity in acknowledging that the customer who wants a ridiculously expensive candle isn't stupid; they're human. They're seeking an emotional benefit that matters deeply to them, even if it seems frivolous to others.

When you stop trying to "create value" and instead start reducing the energy required to deliver benefit, you become not just a better entrepreneur—you become a better human. You're not extracting value; you're smoothing the path between people and their wellbeing, whether that's defined as basic necessity or extravagant luxury.

Take one offering you have today and ask: "How can I lower the energy it takes to receive this benefit?" Your next innovation might start there. Can you eliminate a step? Simplify an explanation? Remove a fear? Accelerate delivery?

In the thermodynamics of business, the most profound success comes not from creating new desires or needs, but from becoming the lowest-energy pathway to fulfilling the human desires and needs that already exist—rational or not.

The best businesses aren't energy extractors. They're energy optimizers for the gloriously irrational creatures we all are.

About the Author: Hendy Saint-Jacques is the Founder of Valkyrie Media Advertising, pioneering quantum marketing principles to liberate human potential through autonomous, solar-powered value creation systems. With a background bridging marketing, physics, and systems thinking, Hendy is dedicated to creating mechanisms that free people from trading their irreplaceable time for manufactured currency.