Let’s say FREE is a model of giving. Who is doing the giving?

At first (you know, a few years back), it was the salesperson and the investor doing the giving. Squeezing their prices and their returns as a cool form of marketing that was said to be founded on economies of scale. Reviewing now, it seems more plausible there was just some built up inventory to clear out and the prices came down to move the stuff out the door. Sunday, Sunday, Sunday….come one and all.

Today however, the tide has turned.

It is not the salesperson giving their wage. It is no longer paid. It is hard to pay a middleman on zero.
It is not the investor giving up their return. They elected not to invest upfront when they heard “no guaranteed return”.

So who’s doing the giving if old inventory has dried up?

It appears the entrepreneur, the laborer, the writer, and the artist are the givers. They give their talents. They give their effort and tears out of hope that someday they just might find something meaningful returned back for their faith. They’re even so brave as to take on the role of salesperson and investor in the forms of determined sweat equity and extended works through any channel of connection available.

Will their faithful action be rewarded? Something deep within tells me it will.