“So, as I increase in my knowledge, in my training and education, I increase in my value in my worth to society that I’m trying to penetrate.”
“So, as I increase in my knowledge, in my training and education, I increase in my value in my worth to society that I’m trying to penetrate.”
There are basically two ways to increase your income, either by time or skills. Time is limited in supply so you can only work at your job up until a certain amount of time a day, or build something to help you generate income without you being present which brings us to the next component which is your skills. By developing your existing skills and acquiring new ones, you can increase your value and earnings from 1 to a hundred folds. Let’s see how we can increase our value, earnings and income at the same time.
ν = ƒ ( T + S )
where V = Value or Income or Earnings
T = Time
S = Skills acquired from education or learning new skills and technologies or working experience.
The function above tells us that the Income you earn is a function of the time you have and the skills you have. So, for you to increase V (your value or your Income), you have to either increase the amount of time you spend working, improve your skills or you have to do both that is increasing your time worked and Skills at the same time.
The million-dollar question is why do people you went to the same school with and studied the same career together, earn more than you do?
We can answer this million-dollar question with the two variables above. Time and skill development.
- TIME: If you are equally educated as your friend, with the same level of work experience, same nationality, doing the same job, in the same company, the only way possible you can expect to earn more and increase your value in monetary terms is by working more hours. That is, the more hours you work the more money you can earn.
NOTE: The limitation about the aspect of the amount of time and money earned is that some corporations will employ you for a piece rate, which makes it impossible for you to improve your income with time. Also, time by nature is limited. We only have 24 hours a day. This means that we can only improve our income up to a certain level with respect to the amount of time we are able to work. This is illustrated in the diagram below:
This means we can increase our income with the hours worked up until a certain moment which it becomes constant because we don’t have anymore time and so we can not increase our productivity.
Skills: there are several ways in which you can increase your skills which in effect will have a positive impact on your income. Below I will list the different ways in which an improvement in your skills will increase your income.
- The first way your skills can increase and impact positively your income is by working for companies for several years, becoming an expert on a particular field and over the years, your income increases with the passage of time. This is what the society has imposed on us and we have just accepted it without questioning the philosophy. This first aspect has worked well for certain people, but it limits your velocity to grow your income. This method of acquiring skills and growing your income at such a slow pace is not my recommendation. You should combine this with the next points if you have to grow your income in a way that will rapidly increase your value and income.
- Continues Education: for you to improve your skills, your value and grow your income, you must take extra courses concerning your specialty at a least. This is very vital to increase your income and value because the world is changing so very fast and every 18 months our knowledge becomes obsolete. That is why we need to constantly take courses to upgrade our value and become relevant in the society. It doesn’t matter the job you find yourself in. The key to stay relevant, increase your value and income in this 21st century is to make sure you keep on actualizing your knowledge.
- Your skills can also help increase your income and value by using other sources to generate income. (check our blog on other ways to make money other than your salary). For instance given that you have become a specialist in something through the years, you can look for a way to transmit your knowledge and experience to the younger generation by creating an educative course which could serve as your second source of income when you are at your job.
- Your skills can improve your amount of income earned by educating yourself in the areas that is considered by society to be of higher value like becoming a doctor, an engineer, an artist, etc.