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The whole idea is to see what we become – not what we get. Is your Job bringing you closer to what you’re becoming? It’s really not what you can get out of your job, but what you can get through it that’s important. Personal development is the key to everything good.
Success is something that’s attracted by self-development and economic success depends on the value you bring to the marketplace. The more value you can provide, the more you will be paid. For example, if you’re paid a salary of $2000 a month, then in the eyes of your employers that’s what you’re worth to them. That’s their perceived value of you and your work.
If you don’t know it yet, there’s a ladder of value and opportunities. All you have to do is ask yourself “how can I climb up this ladder?” Let’s answer that question with this question; “how do you change your market value?” You can’t just go to your boss and demand a raise just because you’ve worked for him for several years. If that was possible, let me just demand to be filthy rich, right now!
However, there is one guarantee I can make and that is you can get rich through your performance! The better it is, the higher your value rises in the marketplace.
Through quality performance, you can increase your value by two, three, ten times…even more. Just ask anyone who only buys branded watches, shoes or handbags.
Minimum wages set by legislation is only a small part of the equation. It’s a good start, but the better you’re at adding value to yourself, your boss will be the first to notice it and she’d be happy to compensate you well.
How do you raise your value? You can start by improving your attitude. Being more positive and cheerful at work will get you noticed very quickly.
If you’re working for someone, something as simple as smiling or being the first person to arrive and the last one to leave the office is a very good start.
If you run a business, being more attentive to your customers’ concerns and staying in contact with them will produce great results. Here’s another easy one you can do; make it a policy for everyone to answer phone calls before the third ring…with a smile. It works like a charm for the J. W. Marriott hotel chain. Besides, isn’t this rare these days with more calls answered by recordings and robots?
"Self-care leads to poverty, self-investment leads to fortune!"
Another thing you can do to raise your value is by working on your skills, language and vocabulary. Take courses, go to seminars, read books and listen to podcasts and audiobooks.
Years ago I learned a new term and a new way of learning from Brian Tracy and that’s to attend Automobile University. Instead of listening to music while driving in my car and getting stuck in traffic jams, I would instead listen to CDs and audio programs containing seminars and courses. Today, I listen to a lot of audiobooks and podcasts.
Don’t get me wrong, I really love music but I’d rather listen to things that can improve me. Just getting to and from work every day spending one hour in your car or any form of public transportation works out to at least 20 hours a month or 240 hours a year. That’s more than the required time needed to earn a Bachelors and Masters degree. Continue for another 6 months, you’d have done your PhD.
“Knowledge is everywhere and very seldom will it come looking for you, seek it out!”
Did you know that the top CEOs read more than 60 books a year? I know of some who reads hours a day. Warren Buffett reads 80% of his entire working day. That’s at least six hours a day. Brian Tracy also says that the highest paid people are those whose job involves a lot of thinking.
Here’s a simple formula that’ll make you more valuable to your employer, marketplace, community and family:
1. Give service over and beyond what is expected. In selling, there’s this policy of always under-promising but to over-deliver on your commitments.
Always make commitments you know you can keep and just put a little extra that wasn’t expected by your customers, friends or family members. Can you imagine how they’d feel?
Have you noticed how the biggest companies today like Facebook, Microsoft and Google got so big? They built their businesses on credibility and trust by giving away free services, upgrades and regularly adding new features. They got us so hooked that they’ve become necessary parts of our daily lives.
It would only be years later that they started monetizing their businesses through advertising and subscriptions. Today, Inc. Magazine puts Microsoft’s brand value at $81 billion, Facebook’s at $90 billion and Google’s at a whopping $121 billion.
What about your family? Yes, become more valuable to them too! It would be tragic to be able to inspire your employees but not your children. Set goals with them as you would with your company. The toughest kind of leadership is parenting. Be a good leader, be a good parent.
2. Work on improving yourself, your performance and character. The whole idea is to just to make small improvements at a time so you don’t overwhelm yourself.
For example, let’s say you decided to spend your next holiday touring France and you wanted to be able to speak decent enough French. You can start by getting a French-English dictionary or app and start learn just 2 words a day. How hard could that be? In 12 month’s time you’d know at least 720 words. That’s more than enough to put together sentences.
3. Always Look For Problems To Solve. Here’s one I was very bad at. I stayed away from other people’s. I was always taught to keep my nose to myself and stay out of other people’s problems.
All that changed when I realized that pretty much all the rich people made tons of money by looking for and solving other people’s problems. Curing their pains and fears.
Pizza Hut, Domino’s Pizza and McDonald’s solved a huge problem people had with time preparing quality food. Grab, eBay and Airbnb saves us the hassle of finding transportation, buyers for our products and quality accommodation.
The same can be said for lawyers, doctors, engineers, mechanics, etc. Can you spot one thing that all these companies and individuals have in common? They save us time, the most valuable commodity we have. The better they’re at it, the more valuable they are.
Climb That Ladder
The only way to climb and keep climbing the success ladder is for you to become more. And, the only way to become more is to work on you. Believe me, you will be paid more when you become more too. All that’s needed is some sacrifice and hard work.
It’s possible to see what your future will be like - Opportunity mixed with difficulty. That’s how it’s always been. Nations were born out of opportunities and the accompanying difficulties.
The same goes for companies, marriages, careers and even the first time we started walking. When you’ve planned and prepared for any expected or unexpected difficulties, you can ease your journey through any opportunity.
Here are four things to keep in mind:
1. Prepare For The Difficulties.
There’s a cycle to everything. Life meets death and good health will occasionally encounter illnesses, some more severe if good health was neglected.
There’s always a recession after an economic boom. The good news is you can prepare yourself for these cycles with knowledge and experience.
2. Grab The Opportunities.
"Take advantage of the opportunities you knew were on the horizon. When the time comes, grab it fast. Don’t waste a single minute."
There’s usually a small window of opportunity and deciding to take any opportunity depends on your preparedness to take it. You can’t expect to take an offer to build a skyscraper if all you’ve had experience in is building a few single-family houses.
Always prepare yourself by reading and listening to books, podcasts or learning a new skill through courses and seminars. Learn every day, not occasionally.
What do you think Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James and Lionel Messi have in common? They practice hard everyday, not weeks or months before games. Incidentally, Forbes Magazine lists them as 2017’s world’s top 3 highest paid athletes earning in excess of $80 million each.
3. Maintain A Positive Attitude.
Always maintain a positive mental attitude and beware of negative talk from people, especially yourself. Listened to enough times, these negative thoughts will find their way to convincing and dragging you towards giving up and of course failing.
Maintain your stance on your ideas, goals and opportunities with full conviction. Interestingly enough, these negative thoughts always seem to surface at the beginning of and just before reaching the success of a new project, company or relationship.
As an example, when I was selling cars, it was very common to hear my colleagues talk about the reasons why we can’t sell more; the bad economy, market slump, new policies or legislations. The list never seems to run out.
Eventually, I started believing them and began convincing myself; “oh, what’s the point of trying? I’m not gonna sell more anyway!” Then, I’d do the next logical thing, I thought, and that was to either quit or hang on as long as I could until my Sales Manager would call me into his office.
Now, whenever I’m faced with a similar situation, I either politely excuse myself from the conversation with a white lie or I’d avoid it by any means necessary and keep myself busy with more productive tasks. I recommend you do the same!
To this day, I am a staunch believer Napoleon Hill’s famous words; “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, you can achieve”.
4. Reap! Don’t Complain.
As humans, we have the God-given ability to use our minds to think and change our lives. Stop whining, especially about things you have no control over such as the weather, the law and company policies. The only way to get around these events is to prepare yourself thoroughly through self education and put in some extra effort.
One last thing; don’t apologize for your success unless of course it was through unethical means. Stay away from these acts too.
The Four Keys To Personal Development
There are three key aspects to self-development that require equal attention.
1. Physical.
Take care of yourself, in this case that would be your body! Only you and you alone can do this. Your success depends on it 100%. How can you expect to learn, develop new skills or work hard on building your business or career if you’re always sick, lethargic or lazy?
According to Caroline Bearden’s article in builtlean.com titled “Seven facts about the mind-body connection”, we always have the mind-body connection, regardless of thought or activity. Why do you think most of us freeze and get sweaty palms when we have to give a speech to so many people from a stage?
How about the last time you avoided an activity just because you’ve convinced yourself that you’re going to fail miserably at it anyway?
What about stress? Did you know that regular chronic stress over long periods of time can lead to illnesses and diseases like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease or even cancer?
I recommend you read her article here.
On the other hand, a great looking physique exudes confidence and confident people attract opportunities. But, as I know far too well, a great body starts with the mind.
Pushing and motivating myself to eating the right, healthy foods and sticking to a strict fitness regime takes a lot of work but only in the beginning. Force yourself to do it for at least a week and I guarantee you that you’d have started a fantastic habit. You might even get addicted to it. Even a 45 to 60 minute walk 3 to 5 days a week will do wonders.
2. Spiritual.
I’m not going into this with great detail, as it is, a sensitive subject. But regardless of your faith or belief, don’t neglect the study and practice of it. I guess, MC Hammer had it right all along…”we need to pray just to make it today!”
3. Mental.
We all need mental food just like our bodies. What you put into your mind shows in your results. What’s the point of a gorgeous body when your mind is weak? Build your mental muscle by…yes, you guessed it…reading and listening to topics that’ll advance your profession.
Start developing your vocabulary, improving your diction, discussing intelligent topics and soon you’ll begin to stand out in the marketplace. And guess what? This habit works on everyone regardless of his or her education level.
As I’ve mentioned at the beginning of this episode; the top CEOs read an average of 60 books a year; that’s five books a month! Don’t go running out to the bookstore for your first month’s stock just yet. Just start with one book a month.
When I first started reading I was lucky to finish one book each quarter. But one day, I heard a really good tip and that was to just read five minutes each morning just after getting up and five minutes just before going to bed. I tried this for a while and now I average about three books a month. Reading can be addictive too.
If you haven’t yet, start a small library at home. I’m into positive, self-help, autobiographies, history or anything with knowledge so naturally my library’s filled with them. It’s nice to have a good mix of the above genres. Maybe yours might include some good novels too. Some of these authors are good at teaching Philosophy through an absorbing story.
Allow me to share a story by Zig Ziglar in his book “Ziglar on Selling”. At age 37, Vince Robert, a fifth grade dropout from Ottawa, Canada was a taxi driver. He spent many hours each day waiting for fares at hotels and airports.
One day, he was struck with inspiration and bought a dictionary, which he kept on the passenger seat beside him. Each spare moment he had he would learn the words in it improving his knowledge and growing his confidence.
Then, he started investing in the stock market and made some good money. Eventually, he bought the eighteen-cab company he worked for. Today he lectures to people on how to become successful.
4. Know Your Laws And Numbers.
I’m not asking you to be a lawyer but just learn how to read the small fine prints before signing your fortune away. A good start would be to borrow a book on Contract Law from your library and go through some basic principals that you can use yourself or with your Lawyer.
Another good skill to have is the ability to read and understand financial statements. Learn basic accounting. To some people this can be a boring subject but believe me this is something you can’t rely 100% on someone else for.
I’d like to end with one word and that’s AVERAGE.
The Oxford dictionary defines average as “ having qualities that are seen as typical or ordinary in amount, standard, level or rate”. To me, that sure sounds crowded just like the masses at the bottom half of the ladder.
It’s really easy to convince yourself that it’s better not to stand out. That way you don’t make a fool of yourself when you don’t achieve the massive or way-above average goals. Some bosses will even tell their above average performers to tone it down a bit so the other guys on the team don’t start complaining.
"Shut your ears to whiners and work your massive actions toward your massive goals."
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