Daily Inspiration 1-4-12

"My father taught me to always do more than you

get paid for as an investment in your future."

 

"We get paid for bringing value to the marketplace.

It takes time to bring value to the marketplace,

but we get paid for the value, not for the time."

-- Jim Rohn

We all need mentors and they are so much more easily found than people imagine. Jim Rohn, who died a short time ago, was and IS one of the most profound mentors I have and I can remember the first time I ever heard one of his tapes back in late 1980. The reason they are easy to find now is the magic of the recorded voice and books. Jim has done quite a few of both and I can recommend them to anyone without reservation and state without hesitation the value is hundreds or thousands of times the cost.

This idea above about providing value and doing more than you get paid to do is not a new idea, nor was it new when Jim Rohn said it, and I think that it always is worth repeating what I think are fundamentals such as this concept.

Many people think they make so much an hour and that they are selling their time, but it isn't the time they provide that means anything at all, it is the value. However, the idea I want to elaborate a bit on here is not just the value, but what the first quote about giving more than you get paid for speaks to. It is the very last few words: "an investment in your future."

Although I believe that to be valid and true, I think in a deeper sense that the greatest reason for doing more than you get paid to do is not for the employers' benefit, but our own. Not just about how you may grow from it and become more in the future, but focusing on the present, how you will feel about yourself by that act today, right now.

From my own experience, I adopted this idea very early and with rare exception have always provided more value; albeit, that more value often benefited me somewhat more than my employers.

I'll give you an example of what I mean. For 25 years of my life, I was in the car business and spent the first two and a half years as a salesman on the line. I was eager to do well, to improve myself, learn the craft. It was so common for the sales people to hang out and shoot the breeze, most often complaining about something or another. While they were moving the air around, I was studying the cars on the showroom, watching a movie about them, reading a brochure from cover to cover for the tenth time.

I wanted to learn how cars were ordered, so I watched and learned and then asked if I could do some, and very shortly ordered all the cars for the dealership and didn't ask for, nor receive a dime for it, but all of these things not only provided value to the dealership and my employer, but they gave me more experience, confidence and skill which made me the sales manager of the store at age 25, while the other sales people were still shooting the breeze and complaining.

This same fundamental is with me today, and now the only difference is that I am the employer. . .

 

Invest In Yourself For Your Own Benefit First As Others Will Benefit As A Matter Of Course.

 

Spread Some Joy Today--Love yourself today, just because.