Increasing Your Earning Potential by Brian Tracy
Throughout most of human history, we have been accustomed to evolution,
or the gradual changing and progressing of events in a straight line.
Sometimes the process of change was faster and sometimes it was slower,
but it almost always seemed to be progressive, from one step to the
other, allowing you some opportunities for planning, predicting and
changing.
Today, however, the rate of change is not only faster than ever before,
but it is discontinuous. It is taking place in a variety of unconnected
areas and affecting each of us in a variety of unexpected ways. Changes
in information processing technologies are happening separately from
changes in medicine, changes in transportation, changes in education,
changes in politics and changes in global competition. Changes in family
formation and relationships are happening separately from the rise and
fall of new businesses and industries in different parts of the country.
And if anything, this rate of accelerated, discontinuous change is
increasing. As a result, most of us are already suffering from what Alvin
Toffler once called, ‘future shock’.
You can’t do very much about the enormity of these changes, but the one
thing that you can do is to think seriously about yourself and your
basic need for security and stability. In no area is this more important
than in the areas of job security and financial security. You must give
special attention to your ability to make a good living and provide for
yourself in the months and years ahead.
Above all, to position yourself for tomorrow, you must think
continuously and seriously about your work today, your earning ability , 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.
Charles Kettering said that you should give a lot of thought to the
future because that is where you are going to spend the rest of your life.
One of the greatest mistakes that people can make, and the one with the
worst long-term consequences, is to think only about the present and
give very little thought to what might happen in the months and years
ahead.
When our grandfathers started work, it was quite common for them to get
a basic education and then go to work for a company and stay with that
same company for the rest of their working lives. When our parents went
to work, it was more common for them to change jobs three or four times
during their lifetime, although it was difficult and disruptive.
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 acquire them? What is your plan for your
economic and financial future?
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 put it another way, your
earning ability must be considerably greater than the amount you are
receiving, or you will find yourself looking for another job.
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 task master. 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.
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 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 add to your knowledge and your
ability. 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-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.
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