How to Make More Money

Time is money. The saying is old and clichéd and yet few things in life are as true. How often do you stop to think about the value of your own time?

Most people's time is worth very little. This is reflected by the fact that they do not make money for that time. If you take a moment to examine the reasons as to why this is so, the answer becomes apparent -- they spend most of their time doing things that are pretty much worthless. Their activities are not producing any value.

Before I get started, I want to make it clear that there's absolutely nothing wrong with relaxing or doing stuff that's fun. Such is absolutely key to a healthy and well-balanced life. There's no point in striving to become wealthy if not for the aim of enjoying the "finer things" in life! If you don't take the time to relax and enjoy your life you'll burn out.

With that in mind, however, it's important to keep in mind that time spent watching television or doing the countless other mundane things people do during the course of a day is time where you're not providing value. After passing that point where your basic relaxation needs have been met, your time is being wasted. No value is being created and you're not developing a talent that might provide value in the future.

A failure to understand the concept I'm about to explain is why most people stagnate in life.

The two driving factors for determining prices in a capitalist economy are the law of supply and the law of demand. Increased supply drives prices down and increased demand drives prices up. The area of the graph (it's not a single point due to there being a variety of factors involved) where these two forces meet is where price is determined.

Many people overlook that these fundamental laws play a role in determining the price of their own time. You have twenty four hours in a day. If you are smart, you're spending seven or eight of those hours sleeping. You can't be your best without being well rested. You also devote some of your time to eating. The rest is composed of the various other things you do during the course of a day.

So, in terms of your personal amount of time, supply is fixed at twenty four hours. You can't change that. The only meaningful way to increase your value, then, is to increase demand.

The demand that is attached to your time is directly connected to your ability to get things done within that 24 hours. Note that I intentionally did not say "your ability to do things." There are key differences between doing things and getting things done. Doing things doesn't mean that what you are doing will get done. Getting things done doesn't necessarily mean that you did them yourself. That distinction is what most people do not understand when it comes to the value of their time.

People don't pay you for the sheer amount of personal effort you put into a task. If that were the case, you could get rich digging holes and filling them back up for sixteen hours a day. No, what people value is your ability to get a job done in an effective manner. The more more you can do and the more effective you are at your tasks, the more they will value your services. To harp on a theme I've been covering as of late, you increase your effectiveness and the amount you do by hustling your own talents and by leveraging the talents of others.

Part of this involves looking for opportunities to do more. You can do this during your own free time or while you are at work, around your place of employment. Find tasks that people need done and offer to take care of them. It's best to start in areas that involves your own talents so that you can do them personally but sometimes you'll find yourself set to tasks which you can delegate to others. Turn people's problems into tasks, tasks into projects, projects into jobs, and jobs into money and indispensability. Find ways to use your talents and the talents of those around you to accomplish your goals. If you've used the talents of your co-workers, be sure to give credit where credit is due. That's leadership.

You will begin to establish value in the minds of people around you when you can demonstrate that you are able to get effective and refined results to the tasks at which you're set. Keep diligent records of everything you accomplish -- doing so will serve you well when it comes time to negotiate new wages or salaries. Demand for your time will increase dramatically in the wake of results and the price of your time will increase accordingly.

Hustling lets you use your twenty four hours more efficiently. Leveraging exponentially increases the amount of hours you set to a task without actually effecting your personal supply. When you are capable of hustling and leveraging work that would take a regular person fifteen hours into one hour's time, your time becomes worth fifteen times that of the regular person.

Your successful executives and business leaders are leveraging hundreds and thousands of individuals during their normal work hours. They leverage effective individuals who in turn leverage skilled individuals below them, in a chain that goes from the Vice President of Marketing to the mail room clerk. They get hundreds and thousands of hours of results out of a single hour of their time and thus they make that much more -- everything that is done produces a necessary result. They certainly don't work harder or physically do more but they do get more done with what they have. They are paid, in fact, for hustling the skill of leveraging people.

If you want to make more money, learn to maximize the results you can produce within a twenty four hour period of time. Look for ways to expand your role. Develop a unique skill and learn to do it better than anyone else. Find ways to tap into the talents and efforts of others to accomplish the tasks which you can't or won't do. Don't be content to let your free time go to waste when you can focus on learning and applying these skills.

The journey towards making more money is long and hard. You only get out of it what you put in. The results, however, will outstrip any and all of the hurdles you've met with along the way.