"Don't think about the cost: it's about the concept! The money, the cost will be forgotten, but that it was done - that will remain."
~Colin D Cha Fong
This phrase was coined by Colin as a means of encapsulating his idea that some things just have to be done: the monetary cost does not matter. The pain of the financial cost will pass. The fact that whatever it was - the concept - that far outweighs the cost and it remains in memory, and that is what it is important.
Well. We've never come up with another phrase, and now I have put it on the Web...I doubt we'll ever come up with a new phrase.
Everyone have done things because of concept value. Like the Blacktie Dinner - that had concept value. Why else would we all dress up, and fork out loads of money? Other events that have been undertaken purely because of concept value have been the Manila trip - just a weekend, but we stayed at the Manila Hotel, and of course, my birthday dinner with Colin:
I recently remarked one evening during a Scrabble game, "Boy Cols, remember my birthday dinner? I can honestly tell you it was the most expensive dinner of my life to date. But for the first time in my life, I had foie gras, I had truffles, and I tasted a Grand Cru".
"And that is concept value - that is why we do it; the cash is gone, but the memory remains....."
Colin D Cha Fong, 7 December 1996, Tsim Sha Tsui
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Amended on: 19 October, 2000