Invisible & invaluable

The biggest compliment you can receive is, "People take you for granted."

In 2016, an umbrella stand sold for $20,447,642.

Sort of.

The umbrella stand spent two decades in the corner of a Swiss home. During a routine valuation, the stand caught the eye of a specialist at Christie’s auction house.

And the specialist pointed out a thing or two about the umbrella stand.

Namely, that it wasn’t an umbrella stand.

It was a jar. Dating back to the 15th century. From the Ming Dynasty.

And when the jar was put up for auction by Christie’s, it sold for more than $20 million.

All for a simple umbrella stand.

See, the most valuable things in life are often those we take for granted.

• Health.

• Safety.

• Water, food, clean air.

For most of us, these miracles are mundane. They’re prime examples of the cliche, “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.”

Being able to walk isn’t a blessing until you sprain your ankle. You aren’t always aware how safe you are until you feel threatened. You only appreciate the life-giving nature of water when you feel like you need it to give you life.

But that’s not what this post is about.

You know you’re fortunate.

You know to appreciate your health.

You know, mostly, that life is pretty good.

This post isn’t about things at all.

This post is about people.

I was talking to a friend the other day who told me:

“𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘀, ‘𝗣𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱.’”

If people take you for granted, that means you’re so consistent, so reliable, and so trusted that your best qualities aren’t praised — they’re assumed.

You are health, you are safety, you are water.

That is, you give life to the people who take you for granted.

So take this thought and turn it for a moment.

Who do you take for granted?

Here’s Marco Almedia, a Chinese ceramics specialist at Christie’s, on the “umbrella stand” from before:

“Once it arrived, we were absolutely speechless. And the more we studied it, the better it got. Day by day, we were getting more and more excited.”

What if an auctioneer came up to you and said:

“Well, I have this person for you today. And they’re going to love you, unconditionally, every second of your life. They’re going to forgive your mistakes, they’re going to support your dreams, they’re going to believe in the best of you.”

Would you be speechless?

Would it get better the more you thought about it?

Would you get more and more excited each day?

And then, the kicker:

“By the way, we’re going to give this person to you for free.”

The biggest compliment you can pay someone else is to take them for granted.

But they might like to hear how much you appreciate them.

Don’t wait.

Let ‘em know.