The Law of Remuneration

A wake up call came for me one day back in 2004 when I was working at Midas.  I came to the realization that I must  find a way to better leverage my time and talents than standing behind this counter talking to only one person, as this was clearly not the optimal sales environment.  

I had to find a better way of bartering my time for money.

There are many types/forms of barter.  A person can trade their time for a paycheck, the most common being dollars per hour.  Obviously the amount that your job pays will be commensurate to the value of your role within that particular organization, business, etc.  Experience, education, tenure, seniority, etc., any of these can affect how much you will be qualified to earn for your time.

For me back in 2004, I felt as though I was beginning to push the top of that envelope, having worked my way up from essentially being a landscaper for the owner, to running and eventually managing several different Midas shops.

I figured out a way to leverage myself and coworkers to a point where within a year I doubled my income.

All throughout I was constantly cognizant of how I was spending my time.  Something you want to be extremely aware of no matter what kind of employment situation you’re in is the percentage of time that you are doing an income producing activity for your client or employer.

It’s one thing to show up, put in time, then punch out at the end of your shift.  Alternatively being someone who gives 120%, someone who is always looking for ways that lead to opportunity, that is the distinction!

Even if, you’re still working in a barter economy (where you’re trading time for money), there are ways to significantly leverage your income without leaving that type of work.

Entrepreneurs (and there’s one inside of everyone), embody problem solving.  It doesn’t matter what the industry or business.  All the skills they need to know in order to do the job they know they can learn or outsource along the way.

The secret is to start looking for problems you can solve.  Problems mean opportunities and the only way to transition from a barter economy to a leveraged economy is to find solutions to problems that exist in your world.

Difficult situations inspire ingenious solutions.

When a problem, challenge, or crisis arrises at work, are you one to take responsibility for the matter and look for ways to create a solution?  Are you someone who leverages talent or skill for money by “owning” the problem and finding ways to solve it?

Capitalize on the problem by leveraging your unique talents and problem solving skills.  Think strategically of ways to turn it into an opportunity.  Sometimes all it takes is changing your mindset on how you trade those talents and skills for money, and when you do, all of a sudden your value to your clients, customers, or employer increases significantly.

Guaranteed your income will increase by 10 or even 100-fold.

I leave you with a golden nugget from Seth Godin…

The bottom line: Do the work that makes your bosses–and your company’s customers–better at what they do.

All my best,

Jay Kubassek

P.S. This article is based on the April 16, 2013 podcast: WAKE UP: Double Your Potential in 90 Days: The Law of Remuneration

Read podcast transcript here.

Listen to the podcast below…