What are you worth?

How much are you worth? How much is your time worth? If you’re like most people, I can guarantee you think and act like your time is worth less than it really is; in some cases much less.

When I ask, “What are you worth?” I don’t mean net worth (which is important). I mean, how do you value yourself and how do you perceive the value you add to the relationships you’re in?

If you earn $75,000 a year and you’re being compensated for a 40 hour week, your time is worth $36.06 per hour. If you didn’t add at least $36 per hour in value to your business relationships, you probably wouldn’t stay employed for long.

But do you think of your worth in terms of dollars and cents on a daily or hourly basis? If you don’t, why not? Lawyers sure do, doctors too. Good businessmen and executives know their worth - their value - to the penny, and so should you. Why? Good question!

Consider this scenario; you’ve put in a hard week working (your value is $36 per hour remember?) and you’re ready to relax on a beautiful, sunny Saturday. Right about the time you open a frosty beverage and sit down to relax your wife reminds you that the yard needs to be cut. It takes about two hours to cut, trim and rake the yard; you would rather be golfing or fishing or napping - anything else - on this beautiful, sunny, warm Saturday afternoon. You know the neighbor has a kid who will cut the yard for $30 - should you pay him?

If you know what value you bring ($36 per hour), you can make a much better evaluation as to whether this is a good value. In the scenario above, it would take you two hours to cut the yard; that’s worth $72 of your time. You can get the job done for $30. If you value your time, it might be a good investment to pay to have the yard cut unless you really enjoy cutting grass.

This is a simple example to be sure, but think if you could use that time to generate extra income, or improve yourself a bit more. If you could “earn” your value while paying to have the yard cut, you would be $42 ahead. This is a powerful way to maximize your time and your value.

Knowing your worth is also extremely helpful when you have to make decisions about committing your time to projects. If you have a firm understanding of your value, when someone asks you to take on extra projects at work, or clients ask for more of your time, or your community center wants you to chair an event you can ask yourself, “Knowing my value is $X - is this a good and worthwhile use of my time?”

If you can’t answer “yes” to that question, or it’s not a task or cause you feel extremely positive about helping, it might be better to graciously pass on the offer.

If you don’t know your value, you can’t make an assessment like this; you will likely get stuck with another project or involved in another group from which you may not find (or provide) value.

You can also use your understanding of your value, to steer your behavior. An excellent exercise is to ask, “If I were worth $300 per hour, how would I behave?” Using the power of visualization, you can create a state where you do earn $300 (or $500, or $1000) dollars per hour - you can visualize you’re earning like a high-end New York attorney - and you can visualize how you might behave if your value were at this much higher level.

This gets you more comfortable thinking about money and larger sums of money. The ultimate goal of your visualization is to get yourself to feel completely comfortable believing that you do bring a value of $300 per hour (or more) to your business dealings. It’s a new concept for many people to think this way, and it’s usually uncomfortable to start thinking of yourself providing this level of value. If you don’t feel comfortable, you won’t believe in yourself; and if you don’t believe in yourself - that you truly do provide this high level of value - you won’t be successful; it becomes a limiting belief. Remember the words of Henry Ford; “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.”

• The first step is becoming aware of what your value is today, and use that knowledge to steer your decisions.
• The second step is to get yourself comfortable with the idea that you provide a much higher level of value. Use the power of visualization to practice this and set a high goal for yourself; try for at least 10 times what your “today” value is, really stretch your visualization muscles!
• The last step is to truly believe you are worth this much higher value, and that you do provide this level of value. When you really believe this, it’s not difficult to earn $300 per hour, or $1000 per hour, or even $10,000 per hour. Consider real-estate; it’s possible for almost anyone to buy real-estate and sell it for a profit. All it takes is research on which piece of real-estate to buy. If you figure out your value for a transaction like this, it’s very possible your worth will be several hundred dollars per hour.

When you’re aware of your worth - and you use the power that knowledge brings - you can increase your worth. When you visualize a worth you want to obtain, you can learn and condition yourself to act (today) as if you do bring a higher value to your interactions with people. This will - in fact - lead you to actually having a higher value in your mind and in others’ minds. Once you open you mind to such possibilities, it’s freed and ready to help fill in the detail of how to make it happen.

But only if you know what you’re worth!

Add comment December 26th, 2005