Everybody
has Three Economic Assets.
Everyone on the
planet has three economic assets; some money, a job and their self. While this
might appear obvious, it is in fact for this very reason that these three
powerful economic assets are so frequently overlooked. I would have added time as the fourth, but no man has been able to control time. The best you can do is use it wisely. While everyone occasionally
comes into the possession of varying amounts of money, not everyone appreciates
the power of this wealth creating tool. Those who create wealth and substance
from the money they earn are usually good accelerators of money. They save
money diligently and carefully with an aim of accumulating capital to fund a
venture they have in mind. For these people money has purpose and principle. It
is not to be taken lightly or spent on things you do not need. Those who do not
create wealth do not consider the little money they get or earn to be of any
economic value. They spend it as soon as they get it on things that they want. The
immediate gratification of their desires is their primary motivation of using
money. The truth is creating wealth lies in the discipline of managing money and
using it for long term constructive purposes.
Well not
everyone has a job, you will say, so not everyone has access to this economic asset.
Indeed, formal employment has jobs on offer, but informal employment has jobs
too. In fact, there are many jobs around you that you could do for yourself.
You could make your bed, wash the dishes, do your homework or take out the trash.
All of these jobs help you live a better life or prepare you for a better life.
However, you cannot access the economic benefits these jobs offer you unless
you are willing to work. Your mother may ask you once or twice to help with
washing the dishes. If you don’t, she will not ask you a third time. While this
may seem like a small victory of freedom on your part, what you do not realize
is that you have just been fired! What this teaches us is that you can only
hold a job if you are willing to work, make some personal sacrifices and create
social value that can be paid for. Many people would like a formal job where
they are paid a large sum of money without having to put in any effort. It is
probably why betting and gambling is so popular. If you want to access the economic
value of a job you must learn the discipline and the habit of working in such a
manner as to be honestly rewarded for your initiative. You really can’t expect
to eat a meal off a clean plate unless it has been washed, you can’t expect to
pass your exams if you don’t study, you can’t harvest what you have not planted
and you really cannot expect to be paid for work you have not done; especially if
you have not created the requisite social value. Learning the skill and capacity
to work empowers you to unlock the economic value of any job.
My friend, JB,
reminded me the other day that it takes time to create wealth. For a moment I
contested his meaning, because I thought wealth is having allot of money. If
you look at rich people they have great substance in assets, enterprise,
investments and financial savings. It is the kind of substance that takes
diligence and patience to accumulate. Then I understood JB’s point. It is the person
that makes the riches, not the riches that make the person. To accumulate
wealth, you must invest develop and train yourself to make wise economic
decisions. You may need to learn accounting, invest in developing a skill, knowledge
and understanding of medicine, cooking or brick laying. You will need to equip
yourself to extract all the various gifts, abilities, interests and talents you
have to make yourself valuable and a person of high net worth. You will have to
develop your character, competence, courage and confidence if you want to
realize your full economic value as a person. Many people just don’t bother to
learn, get themselves an education and develop the capacity to do more with
their lives, then wonder why life does not give them much economic value in
return. The human being is the only species
endowed with the ability to learn above any other creature and thus has the capacity
to lead, change and make themselves worth more in terms of economic value. If you
really want to realize your full value of your economic assets, you must make
your money work for you, work on your job, but most of all you must work on yourself.
