Everyone wants to make more money, have more security and live and give their family a better life, right? The problem is so few people are willing to put in the time, effort and investment it takes to accomplish this. So what I recommend if you want to make more money, have more financial security and live and give your family the life you all deserve; Invest in yourself.
Why should I invest in my career, there is so much free information available, and I do a good job already?
I hear this answer a lot from salespeople, managers, dealers, business owners and so many other people. The fact of the matter is when you truly invest in yourself, your business and your team, you take mental action to utilize your investment. Yes, yes unless you are truly hungry to and know how to grow you can have all the knowledge, skills and opportunities in the world laid out in front of you and not see the value, nor capitalize on them. Compared to you having a personal investment in this knowledge, these skills, and the opportunities you will now have a higher appreciation and consideration for the worth of this knowledge, these skills and the opportunities that lie in front of you.
Se when we invest in ourselves we want to see results, because we put in our time, talent and treasures. We want to see that effort, money and time capitalize. On the flip side when things are handed to us we don’t have the same time, talent and treasure invested so we won’t give the same effort nor be as focused on making sure we have the proper results.
I saw this with my own career. I was making really good money selling cars, I had a huge client base, and thought my income had plateaued. Then I started NW&A “Conquer What You Chase” Sales Training and realized I had much more to learn. I started going to 3-4 conferences a year all over the country. I started watching sales training videos, reading blogs, engaging in groups on social media, and literally investing 20 hours a week in growing my skill level. This made me learn more, as well as appreciate the relationships, knowledge and skills that were in front of me, because I was dishing out thousands a year of my own money as well as all the time, talent and energy I was investing. This forced me to capitalize on all my investments.
Five years later after I had moved 2,000 miles from my job and I worked only 25 weeks, commuted the 2,000 miles, continued to build NW&A and I made the same amount I had five years earlier when I thought I had plateaued. Now if I had been sent to these conferences by my employer, I probably would’t have created the same relationships, learned as much, or capitalized as well, because it would have been given to me and I wouldn’t have the same personal investment. Therefore the end results and personal proof of accomplishment wouldn’t matter as much to me.
That is why you want to invest in yourself.
How do I invest in myself?
The How is the easy part, you doing it is the only thing holding you back. There are three key roles investing in yourself, and I will lay them out right here.
1. Time-
Put in the time. Do this with all your relationships, with your family, your customers, co-workers, management, owners and or your employees. Strong relationships build a culture, and a culture builds a dynasty.
Go the extra mile with all theses people. Truly listen, engage and care about who they are and what they’re passionate about more than what they can do for you. I guarantee if you do this you will be surprised how much people will want to help you do good and be better.
Watch videos on your craft, listen to podcasts, catch conference calls, read books, blogs and articles, and you will gain knowledge. Engage on social media with your network and like minded individuals and you will build and strengthen relationships. Go to events and grow your network, share what works well for you and find out what you could be doing better and new relationships will sprout and opportunities will arise.
When you invest your time because you want to grow, and not because you have too; you will see the results.
2. Talent-
Talent is both God given and learned. We pick up skills from learning. We learn skills from reading, watching videos, from people like managers, mentors, parents and really in every experience we live. To be successful we need to capitalize and utilize what we learn. Never think you know it all, and never stop learning. Always remember we can have all the knowledge, skill and talent in the world, but if we don’t utilize what we know, and implement what we learn; it’s useless.
Watch those who do what you want. Listen to those who know what you don’t. Follow those who are and have been where you want to be. Stay away from those who are toxic. Gain all the skills and knowledge you can from people you want to be like and you will strengthen and create talent you never thought possible.
If you truly want to grow your abilities and sharpen your talent, never be afraid to learn. Just like a knife must be sharpened after use, the same with your talents and abilities. Don’t ever waste your talent, and don’t ever stop sharpening your talent’s.
You can have all the talent in the world, but if you aren’t utilizing it and creating and capitalizing on opportunities, your partially wasting your talent.
3. Treasures-
We all want it all but we don’t want to invest our hard earned cash… Well if you want to make it big and be successful in life your going to have to come of your wallet. When we start to expect people to give us things, we subconsciously discount it’s value. Think about this, you have a pair of shoes you spent $10 on and another pair you spent $400 on. Which pair of shoes are more valuable to you? Now consider they’re the same exact shoes, which shoe do you find more valuable? The one you peeled out $400 to buy. When you invest your hard earned money in or on something you value and appreciate it more.
Spend your money on books, training, conferences and anything that will help your career and numbers grow. When you spend YOUR money you will appreciate it more, value the information more, and hold yourself and your team to creating bigger results and value that information and knowledge with greater appreciation.
Don’t think of spending a $1,000 in training on yourself or $10,000 on training on your staff as an expense, look at it as an investment in yourself and or your team. When we analyze the cost of everything we loose sight of the value and opportunity in the investment. When we expect things for free, we don’t utilize the leaned skills and implement them into our talents the same. Never look at investing in yourself or your team as a cost, always look at investing in yourself and your team as an investment. You don’t get rich in the stock market without buying stocks. Invest in yourself right now and turn your treasure into tools, talent and skill that will grow your treasure.
Remember, “A critic knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.”
The “Three Reasons Why You Should Invest In Your Career” are these:
1. So you can make more money; money doesn’t buy happiness, but it sure makes it easier to get there.
2. So you can have more security; we can’t dictate what obstacles life will bring us, but we can position ourselves to handle those obstacles with a secure foundation.
3. So you can live the life and give your family the life you deserve and desire; we don’t need all our desires fulfilled but we do all deserve to give ourselves and our family a desired life.
Another motivational blogpost written by Noel Walsh CEO of NW&A “Conquer What You Chase” Sales Training and teacher of Conquer U in St. George, UT. For more inspirational and motivating blogposts and content go to nwnasalestraining.com
“You don’t know what it’s going to be, and that’s a beautiful thing”
“Now go out and Conquer U and Conquer What You Chase”