Take the iPhone as an example.

Each iPhone is the result of thousands of large and small companies around the world — from chips, screens, circuits, cameras, casings, to software, hardware, logistics...

The total value of businesses participating in this supply chain can reach tens of thousands of billions of dollars, with the contributions of tens of millions of people, from research, design, production, distribution to sales and after-sales service.

And users only have to pay a very small part, maybe only 1/100 million or even 1/1 billion of the total value of all the effort, knowledge and systems that create that product.

This shows the level of difficulty and complexity that any startup or company has to face. If the value that users perceive is only 1/1000 or even 1/1,000,000 of the investment value of the business, it is difficult to convince them to spend money.

Although users only contribute a very small part, when multiplied to the scale of hundreds of millions of people, the company will make a profit.

On the contrary, if the number of users decreases sharply, the entire value chain, from the company, partners to thousands of employees, will be severely affected.

Therefore, companies always put users first, sometimes devaluing a part of the people who contribute to creating that product.

When a part of the production or operation chain does not have a good experience, they will hardly create a good product, and the end user will no longer be satisfied.

Therefore, running a company to bring products to users is an extremely complex problem of balancing: customers, products, and the people who create the products.

In short, if a business cannot create a product with real value that far exceeds the cost by 1 millionth, and cannot maintain a balance between the above three factors, it will be difficult to develop sustainably.