What's Your Hourly Worth?

You are the CEO of Your Own Corporation

You never really work for anyone but yourself.  Even when you have a “Corporate America” position, you're still running your own business.  Think about it: you are selling one unit of your existence (an hour of your life) at a set price to a customer (your employer). 

Selling Hours = Bad Business

Selling hours for dollars is a flawed business plan.  Let’s take a quick look at why:

The business of selling hours for dollars has:

• One Product – A single hour of your life.
• Static Product Growth – You can change your level of productivity within an hour, but you can’t change the dynamics of the hour itself (which is the metric you are being paid by).
• One Customer – Your employer.  If you lose your one customer, you lose your business.
• Single Point of Failure – If something happens to you (injured, ill, etc.), your business suffers.
• Ever Declining Inventory – Life has a limited inventory of hours.  They cannot be reproduced.

The Silver Lining: You Must Find Your Passion

When you are passionate about your work, even in a “hours for dollars” environment, you open the floodgates to personal growth and contentment.  Suddenly, you are working to learn, indulging in the task at hand.  This passion is the byproduct of interest.  To attain this silver lining, you have to be genuinely interested in the subject of your profession.  In other words, money can't be the primary source of motivation.  

Once you find your passion, here are some ideas for maximizing your growth potential:

• Learn as Much as You Can – This becomes a natural process when you are truly passionate about your work.  Obviously, the more you know the more valuable your time will be to others.
• Pursue Unpaid Growth Opportunities – Get out of the “hours for dollars” mindset.  See if you can barter your skill set with others in your industry.  You educate them as they educate you.  
• Innovate – If you think there might be a better way, try it.  The worst case scenario is you’ll have to switch back to the way things are now.
• Help Other People – The best way to get what you want is to help others get what they want.  This will also help you establish strong professional relationships.
• Market Your Visibility – Don’t be bashful.  Take credit where credit is due.

As you do these things, you'll find the opportunity to break out on your own, to finally tackle your lifelong dream, will present itself at the right time. As you push your mind and surroundings to cater to your desires, you become more of the person and create more of the situations needed to pursue your life's passion. 
. . .

You got this. Go conquer.