Have a high price for your time

One concept that I’ve been playing around with lately is that of the value of my time. Our time is valuable, and I’ve found that I’ve been discounting mine far more than I should.

How did I get here? Well, I think that I’ve always seen myself as less than. Less than others, less worthy of deserving what I have, and being is a less favourable negotiating position when it’s come to relationships, business or leisure pursuits. 

That needs to change. The value of my time is valuable, and much more valuable than the amount that my employer pays me as a salary. For the longest time I’ve always willingly give my time and labour away for the benefit of the ‘experience’. 

However, I now have plenty of experience that my employer is paying for – so why do I need to give it away, and what am I getting in return above the value of my labour?

Starting to think this way has helped me get through some interesting thought patterns where your mind cycles through endless loops and thinks you need to grind just like you did when you first entered the workforce.

It’s perfectly fine to work hand, and work late, when you’re young and don’t have the experience or your competence fully developed. As you get older however, you don’t need to do this. You should protect your time and put a price for people to access this expertise – avoid letting people cash this out for nothing or where there’s not a clear payoff.

This is one thing I didn’t act on until recently. I knew it intrinsically, but I wasn’t strong enough in my conviction to keep giving away my time away for people that were not going to give me something in return and pay me a return on my time – at least not a return that I’ve collected from the thousands of hours already invested in my growth.

This is where ownership becomes important. Ownership maximises the value of your time and expertise, but focusing you on its highest value use. Starting a business is the best way to leverage what you know, and get you a return on your time and expertise.

The good news is that, as an employee, you can still act as an owner – as long as you treat the ‘rental’ of your time and expertise as a business transaction – and you don’t ‘over-invest’ emotionally in what someone’s paying you for. 

I’m practicing this more and more nowadays. Some days I feel a sense of guilt, but then I think about those countless hours sacrificed building myself into the professional I am today to build my experience, reputation and skillset. It’s freeing to know I get to tap into this goldmine to generate the return that I’ve aways wanted.

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Cheers

Craig