A large and old ship had some mechanical failures somewhere near the shore. The owners of the ship struggled for some time to get the technicians to bring the ship to life. Hundreds of technicians tried to diagnose the problem and failed.
This technician had strong résumés and qualifications from top universities, but they did not succeed. Weeks went by. Hope faded, and patience vanished. They were then referred to an old chap outside the town.
This old man brought a few tools. Compared to the earlier technicians, he seemed like a joke. Not a very good first impression for the owners. The old man walked around the ship for a few minutes, then asked a lot of questions about the ship.
He asked what they saw, heard, and felt before the ship ran into a breakdown. He then asked about past mechanical failures. He wanted to know all the services and changes made to the ship. He then asked for a few hours to check the ship.
True to his words, in a few hours he came with a request for the purchase of a simple tool. Once the delivery of the tool occurred, the old man replaced it in the engine, and the ship came back to life. He then charged them ten times what other technicians said they would bill to revive the ship.
The owners felt shocked and angry. The old man, who made a bad first impression, completed a job in a few hours. Others had taken weeks to do the same work, so they couldn’t believe he would ask for such a large sum of money.
The old man smiled and said, “You’re not paying me for the hours I worked on your ship. You’re paying for the years of skills, experience, and value I brought to solve your problem.” The owner paid the full amount to the old man with reluctance.
Jim Rohn, a renowned author, speaker and entrepreneur, said, “you make up in numbers what you lack in skills.” When you start your career, you’ll need to work longer hours. An experienced professional can do the same task in a few hours. As people gain skills and experience, they become more valuable and earn higher pay.
In economics, anything which has value has a price. And the law is the more the value, the higher the price. Creating value takes time. But people only care about the value you provide, not how long it takes. You will get paid for the value you create.
If you work in sales, you won’t get paid for the time spent on finding leads, potential clients, and clients. They will pay you based on the sales you made at that time. No one cares how long you will take to make the sales. And the more sales you make in a short period of time, the more valuable you will be.
Cleaners at the company work twelve hours a day but earn very little. Directors work eight hours a day. They earn much more, often hundreds or even thousands of times what cleaners make. The reason is simple: the directors are more valuable to the company than the cleaners.
Global superstars in music and sports make in one hour what most people earn in a lifetime. Those superstars add more value in an hour than most do in their entire lives. Simple mathematics.
The beauty of value is that you can always become more valuable. Boost your skills, gain experience, expand your exposure, and grow your network. This will make you more valuable. You cannot increase the number of hours in a day; we all have twenty-four. But you can increase your ability to create more value in twenty-four hours. And that makes your earning potential unlimited.
Stop thinking about how many hours to add to your work life. Start figuring out how valuable you can be. Stop seeking extra jobs. Instead, look for skills and experiences to boost your résumé.
May you be happy,
May you be healthy,
May you be free from sufferings
May you find peace and joy
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Rogers Katuma
Financial Artist, Senior Adventurer, Occasional Storyteller and an Amateur Golfer
