Learn More To Earn More

We are now in the knowledge age.  Today, the chief factors of production are knowledge and the ability to apply that knowledge to achieving results for other people.  Your earning ability today is largely dependent upon your knowledge skill and your ability to combine that knowledge and skill in such a way that you contribute value for which customers are going to pay.

The Law of Three says that you must contribute three dollars of profit for every dollar that you wish to earn in salary.  It costs a company approximately double your salary to employ you in terms of space, benefits, supervision, and investment in furniture, fixtures, and other resources.  For a company to hire you, they have to make a profit on what they pay you.  Therefore, you must contribute value greatly in excess of the amount you earn in order to stay employed.

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. 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.

Position Yourself For Tomorrow Through Self Development

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.

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 you must constantly learn more and your knowledge must double every three to five years just for you to stay even.

The solution to the dilemma of unavoidable change and restructuring is continuous self development.  Your personal knowledge and your ability to apply that knowledge are your most valuable assets.  To stay on top of your world, you must continually learn more.  You must continually build up your mental assets if you want to enjoy a continuous return on your investment.  And only by building on your current assets do you stop them from deteriorating.

By engaging in continuous self development, 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 self development.  When you learn 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.

Position Yourself For Financial Security

To position yourself for tomorrow, you must think continuously and seriously about your work today, your financial security, and the work that you will be doing one, three, and five years from today.  You must plan to achieve your own financial security, no matter what happens.

Today, with increased turbulence and change in the national and global economy, a person starting work can expect to have five full-time careers between the ages of 21 and 65, and 14 full-time jobs lasting two years or more.  According to Fortune Magazine, fully 40 percent of American employees in the 21st Century will be “contingency” workers.  This means that they will never work permanently for another company.  They will continue to move as needed, from company to company, from job to job, earning less money than full-time employees and accruing very few, if any, benefits in terms of health care and pension plans.

Imagine what your job will look like five years from today. Since knowledge in your field is probably doubling every five years, this means that fully twenty percent of your knowledge and your ability in your field is becoming obsolete each year.  In five years, you will be doing a brand new job with brand new skills and abilities.  

Ask yourself, “What parts of my knowledge, skills and work are becoming obsolete?  What am I doing today that is different than what I was doing one year ago and two years ago?” What are you likely to be doing one year, two years, three years, four years and five years from today?  What knowledge and skills will you need and how will you continue your self development? What is your plan for your economic and financial stability?