EDUCATION
Often times, people get to a point where they are happy with their careers and they become complacent. While they think they have made it, in reality, standing still is really falling behind. For example, if you fail to continue learning, you will soon be phazed out by new technology and new times.
By nature, life is progressive. While people have great value at each phaze of their life: baby, child, adult, parent, grandparent, they naturally need to progress to be the most valuable during each of these phazes. While children are innocent and full of love, one will not be very valuable as an adult, without maturing beyond their childhood state. For one thing, nature will not allow us to keep the innocence we had or let our love flow as freely because we will have impacting experiences in our life. However, if we do value these characteristics of our children, we can have an even greater impact based on how we mature as adults. Imagine, as adults, if we all behaved like children, how our society would be. Sometimes we do behave like children, but hopefully, we are seeking how to grow through life and its progressive nature.
One thing that amazes me is that many highly successful people mention how we should never stop learning. I read somewhere that 42% of college graduates, never read another book. On the other hand, you talk to world class athletes and they continue to train being coachable, which makes them the best of the best. You talk to successful CEOs and they talk about how they need to learn even more. It shocks me.
"The best entrepreneurs never lose sight of the big picture, and they never stop learning until they die." Marty Zwilling (http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-03-11/strategy/31144567_1_big-picture-business-ideas-new-idea)
When I was a teenager, I used to say I wanted to get 3 PhDs. I didn't even know much of what that meant. Now, I say I will someday write a book and someday become a lawyer. This is the mentality of "Never stop learning."
No matter what you do in life or where you go, you can always learn. You should be learning through every experience in your life. Some people say "I don't know why I went to school, I don't even use my degree." I like to look at this a different way. I like to think that no matter what your degree was, it will always affect your earning potential because you learned things and had experiences that shape your life. If you start a new business and you fail, you should learn something which will help shape your future. If you attend a meeting and it doesn't apply to you, you should still try to pick up something valuable.
OPPORTUNITY
One should always be looking for new opportunities. I have talked about this in previous blogs. Basically, I strongly believe that people on average have a million dollar idea each year. Most people just don't act on it or aren't willing to apply the effort necessary to profit from that idea. As you live your life, you will constantly find something lacking as you try to accomplish what you are trying to accomplish. It may be something small, like a garden hose or coffee cup sleeve. Or it can be something big like software program to teach people how to sing. You can either continue on in your life, or you can perform a great service by trying to fill that void.
If you want to double your salary, you have to reinvent yourself. If you are making 25K a year and want to make 50K a year, you have to reinvent yourself. If you are making 50K a year and want to make 100K a year, you have to reinvent yourself. The reason is that part of the things you value and know have led you to where you are today. However, part of the things you value and know are also preventing you from reaching that next level.
If you are making $8/hr going to school, why not look for a job that pays $10/hr. When you find that job paying $10/hr, why not search for something paying $12/hr. Continue sharpening your skills until you get to where you want to go. I would even say, don't stop there. If you make $100K per year, why not try to look at what it would take to make $200K per year. If anything, do it because life is short and you want to challenge yourself to be the best you can be.
NEGOTIATION
Did you know, you can get paid more for what you already do? Negotiation is so critical in determining wages and salary. I once negotiated a 10K raise. I told my employer that I had no intention of leaving and that I loved what I did. I just added some information that gave the employer an incentive to give me a raise. In any case, you may be working at a job where your employer is making a profit from keeping you on board. If you learn some basic negotiating skills it can go a long way. Time and time again, I have seen the best people on a team have some of the lowest salaries, simply because they did not have the skills to negotiate.
Here are some quotes from a Forbes article I read: (http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2012/04/03/why-american-women-lose-negotiation-linked-in-career/)
1. "A new survey from LinkedIn reveals that not only are professionals uncomfortable with negotiating for higher salaries, roughly one in four of us are so anxious with the process that we’ve decided to skip it altogether."
2. "According to the numbers, fewer than 26% of women feel comfortable negotiating compared to nearly 40% of men."
Just a quick suggestion. When starting that new job, even if its the only job you have on the table, ask them to mail you an offer letter for you to look over the entire package. After they do, say it looks promising and you'll have to think about it because you really wanted to see such and such a number. Little things like this mean you will pick up the job either way, so you don't have to worry about not having a job, but they also mean you can get what you are worth. And by that, I mean, don't ever let some company tell you what you are worth. I know there is no cap on your potential. If you can speak English, your brain has enough power to do so much more than you realize.
Support My Mission
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