On Opportunity and Value

Value is not created, but attached.

Resources

What you have in stock. On hand. What you have access to.

Your time, money, skills, knowledge, people network, materials, lands, staff, product, company. All of those are resources.

Production

The production process converts resources (the cost of production) to a finished product or service (an end result) - creating/adding value to initial resources consumed.

Profit

This is the difference between the value of finished product and initial cost in resources.

Opportunity is the possible profit to be gained from such productive process.

Value is not, categorically, created but attached. Not added, but attached to an object. Any arbitrary amount can be attached to an object by a subject (a human). In an economic environment or exchange, as it is, the value attached to an object must have been agreed upon by the parties involved first, for any meaningful activity to occur.

The productive process can take on various forms.

A simple exchange of an object from one subject to another will most usually correspond to the addition of value to at least one party involved in the exchange.

Another form of productive process can be manufacturing at all scales: industrial, commercial, household. Usually, again, the end result of such activity would be an object or objects) composed of original materials/resources with a value (agreed upon) greater than the cost of constructing such an object.

Services, another form of productive process is more diverse, not strictly defined, Either way, its end result is the addition of value to at least one but usually all parties involved.

Value here, mind you, has not been strictly defined as money. Money is simply a universally agreed-upon method of representing value. Money, furthermore, can also be represented in various forms. Other forms of value, stated here unchecked, can be utility, satisfaction, peace, joy. At this point, might I say that value, what we need, desire, the end goal of our cravings, is almost always abstract in nature yet almost always need be represented tangibly for the purpose of universal communication and acceptance.