Everybody has Three Economic Assets

 

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.