Here is the #1 sure way to earn more money. It is 100% guaranteed. An easy $1000.
First you have to answer four quick questions correctly to qualify. I’ll even give you the answers.
Q: If you want to become strong what do focus on?
A: Becoming stronger.
Q: If you want to put more rocks in your pocket what do you focus on?
A: Putting more rocks in your pocket
Q: If you want to build better relationships what do you focus on?
A: Building better relationships.
Here comes the trick question.
Q: If you want to make more money what do you focus on?
A: Having unique value.
Did you want to say “making more money”, even though you knew it was a trick question? The answer is not natural for humans to come up with. Making money is counter-intuitive to human logic. Making money is counter-intuitive to almost everything else we do.
In general if you focus on what you want you will get it. Money does not work in the same way. It does not really ‘exist’. There is nothing to focus on to make more of. This is the most difficult point to prove to you.
The dollar in your hand is stored value, nothing more. It is potential energy ready to be exchanged. You can not focus on making more money any more than making more energy. That is the second law of thermodynamics. You can not create or destroy energy. But you can exchange it.
You have to find something to exchange you have more of than most people.
What are you exchanging for money? Most focus on the wrong thing, time. The trouble is time is limited. At best a person has 70 years to live. Those aren’t even working years.
Add in everybody has the same 70ish years. Now you are like everybody else. Congratulations you are in same category as corn, cows, soybean and pork bellies. You are a commodity. Did you know there are commodity markets for doctors, programmers and politicians? (Insurance, elance.com, too obvious)
I’ll tell you what is very sad about commodities. Somebody else sets the exchange rate. When most people talk about ‘making more money’, they are saying “I’m going to exchange a resource that is very limited to me but is everywhere for a rate I have no control over.” That does not sound like unique value
A product or service creates unique value when it is rare or makes the life of the user easier. I’ll repeat that last part. Value comes when a product or service makes the life of the user easier. It is easier than you think.
I will now perform commodity magic right before your eyes. Watch as I turn an ordinary commodity into a highly paid for product. Watch carefully or you will miss it.
Did you see that? I turned a $1 head of romaine lettuce into a $3.99 time saving product. I’m amazing! Now somebody does not have to have a knife to have chopped lettuce right now. Truly a boon for the chopping impaired. Here is the crazy part. The most expensive parts are thrown away or happened when you were not looking.
The value is in packaging and washing and cutting up the lettuce. It did not cost $2.99 for the bag or labor to handle the lettuce. Crap that is approx $35 an hour for 5 minutes of work, if the bag is a nickel. ROI comes in at about 275%. Nice investment.
The words on the bag are the biggest value. They tell you what you are getting, just in case you are confused or mistook it for a head of lettuce. It is not just romaine lettuce. That is garden fresh chopped romaine lettuce.
Our jobs are no different. Each of us can perform a specialization which will save our company or clients time, money, resources if they knew about it. They don’t know about it because you have not told them. You have not told them because you probably don’t know. Maybe you already are doing the specialization. You could be chopped garden fresh lettuce acting like a whole head lettuce. What a shame!
You need a bag to put yourself in and tell the world how great you are. What is your bag and the label on it? Look around your work place. What do you do better than most people? Does your boss know about it? What need is nobody fulfilling?
There is no reason to work more hours to increase your income. Everybody I have coached was under evaluating their worth. Employers want to be ‘sold’ your value. By asking for a raise and explaining how you life easier you are telling them you are interested in their success. This is the magic packaging. A fifty cent raise is over $1000 in a year. What are you doing each hour that is at least $1.50 in unnoticed productivity. (You can easily ask for 1/3 of the value you bring.)
Tell me I’m wrong if you don’t believe me. You can do it in the comment box. Would it be helpful to have examples? Anybody want me to draw out their hidden unique value for free? I’ll give 30 minutes of free coaching to prove my point. Only one condition if we are successful I will post your success. If I fail I will post my failure.
