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Increasing
Your Value and Increasing Your Income
Your
job is an opportunity for you to take your game up to the next level,
to become all you can become. Your job is an opportunity to contribute,
to add value to your company far in excess of your cost. Learn to
be an asset, someone who brings in greater value every day. Learn
to develop the attitude of someone who can make things happen, someone
who can be counted on to produce superior results consistently.
In its simplest terms, your job is only as secure as your ability
to render value in excess of what it costs to keep you on the payroll.
If
you want to earn more money at your current job or in the marketplace,
you have to increase your value, your contribution to the enterprise.
It follows the basic law of economic supply and demand. Offer
greater value than your peers and get paid more money for that greater
value. Always ask yourself how can I contribute more now and in
the future? One thing is for certain if you want to attain higher
levels of success in any organization, you have to find a way to
contribute value to that organization. There is no such thing as
job security in the current marketplace. If you want any kind
of job security, you must continually work at maintaining and increasing
your value in the competitive marketplace.
And
here's a key point. Your education, knowledge, skills, talents and
abilities are investments in your ability to contribute a value
for which you can be paid. But they are like any other investments.
They are highly speculative.
There
are more opportunities for you to fulfill your dreams and aspirations
in the American economy than have ever before existed, or than exist
anywhere else in the world. You can be, have, or do anything that
you can dream of by preparing yourself for better and better jobs.
It is never crowded at the top. There are no traffic jams on the
extra mile. Your job is to get good, get better, and then make yourself
indispensable.
Jim
Rohn says "the major key to your better future is YOU."
Put that some place you can see it everyday, in the bathroom, in
the kitchen, at the office, anywhere where you can see it everyday.
The major key to your better future is YOU. Try to remember
that every day you live and think about it. The major key is YOU.
Jim
Rohn says the major key to your better future is you. Lock your
mind onto that. This is a super important point to remember.
The major key is you. A friend of mine has always answered when
asked, "How do you develop an above average income?" He
says, "Simple. Become an above average person. Work on you."
My friend says, "Develop an above average handshake."
He says, "A lot of people want to be successful, and they don't
even work on their handshake. As easy as that would be to start,
they let it slide. They don't understand." My friend says,
"Develop an above average smile. Develop an above average excitement.
Develop an above average dedication. Develop an above average interest
in other people." He says, "To have more, become more."
Remember; work harder on yourself than you do on your job. For
a long time in my life, I didn't have this figured out.
You see the real difference is inside you. In fact, the difference
IS you.
Someone
once said, "The magic is not in the products. The magic is
not in the literature. The magic is not in the film. There isn't
a magic meeting, but the magic that makes things better is inside
you, and personal growth makes this magic work for you.
The
magic is in believing. The magic is in daring. The magic is
in trying. The real magic is in persevering. The magic is in accepting.
It's in working. The magic is in thinking. There is magic in a handshake.
There is magic in a smile. There is magic in excitement and determination.
There is real magic in compassion and caring and sharing. There
is unusual magic in strong feeling and you see, all that comes from
inside, not outside. So, the difference is inside you. The real
difference is you. You are the major key to your better future.
Trust
that your work is worthwhile and making a vital difference.
Legendary
Indy 500 racecar driver Andy Granatelli said once, "When you
are making a success of something, it's not work. It's a way of
life. You enjoy yourself because you are making your contribution
to the world."
Bob Buford has written that many people spend the first half of
their career pursuing success. When success alone is found to be
lacking, they give the second half to the pursuit of significance,
which is far more satisfying.
If
your job is not making a difference in this world, by all means,
get out there and find something else. But in many situations, you'll
find a sense of making a difference through your work if you simply
look for it.
Challenge
- Find a job big enough to keep you growing for the rest of your
life.
If
the job you have now offers no opportunity to grow, decide to grow
anyway. Invest in your own personal development, sharpening leadership
skills, interpersonal skills, and technical skills. What you'll
discover is that your organization will find a place for a person
who has made a priority out of growth. And if they don't the competition
will! .
"To
position yourself for tomorrow, here is one of the most important
rules you will ever learn: "The future belongs to the competent."
The future belongs to those men and women who are very good at what
they do. Pat Riley, in his book The Winner Within, wrote that,
"If you are not committed to getting better at what you
are doing, you are bound to get worse."
To phrase it another way, anything less than a commitment to excellent
performance on your part is an unconscious acceptance of
mediocrity. It used to be that you needed to be excellent
to rise above the competition in your industry.
Today,
you must be excellent even to keep your job in your industry. The
marketplace is a stern taskmaster. Today, excellence, quality, and
value are absolutely essential elements of any product or service,
and of the work of any person. Your earning ability is largely
determined by the perception of excellence, quality, and value that
others have of you and what you do. The market only pays excellent
rewards for excellent performance. It pays average rewards for
average performance, and it pays below average rewards or unemployment
for below average performance. Customers today want the very most
and the very best for the very least amount of money, and on the
best terms. Only the individuals and companies that provide absolutely
excellent products and services at absolutely excellent prices will
survive. It's not personal. It's just the way our economy works.
To
earn more, you must learn more. You are maxed out today at your
current level of knowledge and skill. However much you are earning
at this moment is the maximum you can earn without learning and
practicing something new and different. "Learning is not
attained by chance. It must be sought for with ardor and attended
to with diligence." Abigail Adams
"Learning
is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere."
Chinese Proverb
And
here's the rub. Your accumulated knowledge and experience is becoming
obsolete bit by bit, day by day. The knowledge in your field is
doubling every three to five years. That means that your knowledge
must double every three to five years just for you to stay even.
The
solution to the dilemma of continuous change and restructuring
is continuous self-development. Your personal knowledge, talents
and abilities your ability to take action and apply that knowledge
are your most valuable assets. To stay on top of your game, you
must continually add to your knowledge and be willing to take action
to implement what you've learn. Take action, if you fail get
the lesson on move forward. You're going up the escalator of life
or down the escalator of life, there's no longer any room for standing
still. You better be distinct or you'll become extinct. You must
continually build up your mental assets if you want to enjoy a continuous
return on your investment. And only by growing your current
assets do you stop them from deteriorating. Grow or die.
By
engaging in continuous self-improvement, you can put yourself behind
the wheel of your own life. By dedicating yourself to enhancing
your earning ability, you will automatically be engaging in the
continuous process of personal development. By learning more,
you prepare yourself to earn more. You position yourself for
tomorrow by developing the knowledge and skills that you need to
be a valuable and productive part of our economy, no matter which
direction it goes."
Management
guru Peter Drucker says the best way to create your future is to
invent it.
Each day offers an opportunity for improvement. Each moment an advance
or retreat in the pursuit of your goals. What you need is an all
out commitment to life long learning. The Japanese call it Kaizen
which means making incremental, continuous improvements little by
little every day. To be successful in the 21st century you need
to immerse yourself in a process of ongoing personal development.
Personal development is a lifelong pursuit because life is a
continuous work in progress, a journey not a destination. Remember
what my mentor Paul J. Meyer says "success is the progressive
realization of worthwhile predetermined personal goals".
You never totally arrive; there's always some polishing to do, knowledge
to gain, and love to deepen. Self-development ends only when
we end, when we come to the end of the line like when you're dead
and buried. You are, and will always be, a self in evolution.
Here's
a truth you can take to the bank and make money on. You are personally
responsible for your own self development and the results you get
in life. It all starts and ends with you. Actually it starts in
your head as a thought and thoughts turn into attitudes and attitudes
turn into behavior and behavior turns into results. Self-improvement
begins at home, inside our heads. Don't allow your thinking to develop
into a negative, emotionally draining attitude to be your handicap.
Make it your attitude your greatest strength. Every day you need
to consciously choose the books you're going to read, the tapes
you're going to listen to and the people you're going to associate
with. Consciously everyday put yourself in those situations where
you are feeding your brain positive information otherwise by default
you will be exposed to toxic doses of negativity from the media.
Almost
everything we do in our life is done from habits. Habits-good and
bad alike-are lifelong companions and hinder us or help us on our
journey of personal development. Your challenge is to withstand
the effects of your own bad habits. Bad habits are like landmines
strewn through the landscape of your life. Eventually you will become
a casualty to your own bad habits. The only problem with good habits
is that they're so easy to give up!
Spend
your life learning how to develop new more positive habits. Living
is a performance art that requires you to do the hard work if you're
going to do it well. We think, write, produce, and act out our own
story. Life is fired at us point-blank; we must constantly decide
what to do with it.
Life
is an ongoing journey, with lots of beginnings and continuations.
A good friend of mine once told me to focus on progress not perfection.
Being a bit of a perfectionist I always wanted it to be better,
but sometimes we just get hung up on perfection and don't make any
progress. We never get to a point when all knowledge is attained
and understood, when our bodies function flawlessly, when we completely
honor our values, and achieve every goal.
If
you work at your job you will make a living, if you work on yourself,
you will earn a fortune therefore work harder on yourself than you
do on your job.
Management
guru Peter Drucker says that the truly educated person today is
a person who has learned how learn continuously throughout their
life. Management consultant Tom Peters says that continuous learning
may be the only real source of sustainable competitive advantage
for individuals and corporations in the future. And author Peter
Senge, who wrote the Fifth Discipline, says that only learning organizations,
those organizations that are capable of taking in new information,
adapting it, and using it faster than their competitors, will survive
and thrive in the fast-changing, competitive world of tomorrow.
The
best investment you will ever make is an investment in yourself
because the dividends from this investment pay off every day in
a positive way. Who cares if our computers crash as long as our
people don't crash? Our concern should be are we and our people
prepared personally. Is a business out of business because the building
burns down? Only if all our people are inside of it. So the best
commitment you can make is to yourself and your people. The only
investment that pays a dividend every day is an investment in yourself
and your people. The only investment that's a sure thing is an investment
in your knowledge and education. You can buy stock and it can
go up or down. You can invest in other stuff and it can go up or
down. The only investment that will return a continuous flow of
profit is an investment in you.
Every
day offers us the opportunity to improve ourselves. Every day we
advance towards our goals or retreat to the land of mediocrity.
I find with many people that they are not willing to truly invest
in their own success. Investing in yourself is a critical success
factor in the 21st century. And when I say invest, I mean both financially
as well as time, effort and energy - good old "sweat equity."
In learning we grow, and in growing we become successful.
My challenge to you today is to invest in yourself right now.
Yes, BUY something. Then utilize it. The idea is to take action
right now. Invest in your growth. Invest in your future. Pick up
that book you have been meaning to. Buy an audio tape series and
listen to it in the car. Don't just spend your money on coffee or
movies - spend your money on something that will make you grow!
GROW OR DIE!
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