How to increase your income - the secret formula of success (part I)

“You have to work very hard if you wish to amount to something in your life” echoed my mother’s voice in my ears.

“Life is a struggle, if you don’t put your blood and sweat you won’t be able to make a comfortable living. So work hard if you want to be prosperous in life”.

Most of us, middle class kids grow up listening to similar phrases.These are the “Words of Wisdom” bombarded daily to our innocent minds, that accept everything without screening. I wonder why nobody ever encouraged me to live a joyful life when I was growing up. I grew up with this idea of life being full of struggle and hard work.

I was confused as an adult when I saw people working really hard and still struggling to make ends meet. What if one wants to raise his/her income? Well, a part-time job can perhaps solve the problem as we have to work harder, I thought. But that will mean more work hours, so no time for physical fitness, no time for family and no time for personal Development.

Is this the way life is supposed to be?

Are we supposed to exist merely to struggle for living?

Is it possible to increase our income without overstraining ourselves and living joy fully?

Being a keen observer, a learner of life and having been working with the principles of Success for more than a decade, I can claim now without a shadow of doubt, that your income is not a direct function of your hard work.

So, first and foremost you just need to discard the childhood conditioning of working hard to make money.

See around yourself, who are the people you see working the hardest - the labourers at the construction sites, the hawkers on the streets and the factory workers. These are the people who work very hard, give their blood and sweat, sometimes standing for long hours. Are these the very people who earn the most? No.

Hence, hard work alone is not enough to ear a lot of money. 

You see, with hard work you can earn only a little, may be just sufficient to make the ends meet. If you want to raise your income beyond that and earn in avalanche, you have to work SMART, instead of working hard.

What is SMART work?

Hard work + Skills+ Technique = SMART work

Now, see the other side of the coin. Just look at the people who earn most in the society. Whether they are actors, sportsmen, businessmen, musicians, doctors or accountants, these are the people who are highly skilled in their respective fields. The amount of money they earn is a direct function of their expertise in their skill areas.

A doctor, for example, can be a general physician, treating patients for cold and cough or indigestion while another one can be a specialist, like a heart surgeon, doing complicated surgeries.

Who do you think has more expertise?

Who do you think gets paid more?

This is true for every other profession.

One gets paid in direct proportion to the expertise he acquires and the demand of his services.

By pareto’s principle, the 80-20 rule is applicable in every sphere of lives. About 20% people in any profession take away 80% of the total revenue generated. This is because, these are the people who develop their skills and become masters in their chosen fields.

The point here is that if you want to raise your income you have to develop your skills. The more you specialize, become an expert in your job, the more you can charge for your services.

Remember, earning more is always about serving more and serving better. 

Recommendation :

If your hard work is not paying you what you think you deserve, have a close look at your skill sets.

Find out what are the skills you require to achieve in order to be best in whatever you do. You can develop those skills of yours through knowledge and practice. Keep honing them and keep upgrading yourself for better and better.

The day you achieve excellence, you become a master of your skill, it’s you who will determine the value of you work, it’s you who will determine your salary or the charges of your services.

Excellence is the key!