Trading time for money is what most of us do for a living. In a year, we have at most 2080 hours (40 hours x 52 weeks) of our time to trade for money. Time is more precious as it is limited. We cannot increase time but we can definitely increase money if we work smarter not harder.
Realistically, we are actually slaving away to make our bosses wealthy. To achieve time and financial independence, being an entrepreneur is the only way to go. But if we are entrepreneurs who work alone, we are being delusional. A true entrepreneur is one who knows how to leverage time and the efforts of others. As billionaire J.Paul Getty once said, "I would rather have 1% of the efforts of 100 people than 100% of my own efforts."
From Quora
What should we do to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship?
Charles Tips, Serious student of economics
I was in my fourth year in retail before my partner and I ever had lunch together. Just couldn't leave the store without at least one of us there. We had $7/hour employees (=$17 now), all of them college grads, who simply would not take on more authority. They each saw themselves in a temporary position pending finding their real place in life. They didn't want to know anything or take on any additional responsibility, yet they did frequently want to know why they weren't getting paid more.
We had three direct competitors within blocks of us. When I bought into the company, the store was firmly in fourth place. By the fourth year, when I could finally dine during store hours with my partner, we were doing as much business as the other three put together. We were good, but we were also keenly aware we were not making money. I think our profit in Y4 on $1.4M in sales was $6,000. No raises, no nothing.
We'd lost our window washer. When one didn't come along, I finally pulled out the Yellow Pages. Just then, a funny character walked in my store. I recognized him instantly from his cranberry corduroy bell bottoms, way out of fashion, as a follower of the Rajneesh movement popular then. He was wearing a white disco shirt with strawberry-blond curls for hair, early twenties, about 5'2. He was toting a grocery sack and proudly showed me the several well-worn and thumbed-through books it contained--on the godhead, on mystic enlightenment, Nirvana (before the Seattle grunge scene), what have you.
I waved that aside. "What can I do for you?"
"Can I wash your windows?"
"Sure."
"Can I get paid in advance?"
"Why do you need to get paid in advance?"
"So I can buy the supplies I need."
I looked him over. He was just too naïve to be using guile on me, so I marched him a few blocks away to the janitorial supply store. I got him the tools of the trade, all top-end stuff--bucket, squeegee, extension pole, gallon of glass cleaner... he was set. It came to almost $40, so I told him he owed me two window washings. He was delighted.
He worked at a snail pace, but he was fastidious. Got the job done. I took him to the other three merchants on the block, knowing they were missing our old window guy as well, and vouched for his work. He cleared $60 that afternoon plus a complete set of tools.
A month later he came in for his paid washing, only he was dressed in a suit and had an associate standing outside the door. It was a tacky, suedish suit, but it let me know instantly that his associate would be handling the work. I gave him a twenty from petty cash and he was off.
In the next days and weeks, I began to encounter his associates all over the downtown area, sometimes as many as three. They worked much faster (he must've been a demanding boss), and I ran the numbers through my head. Even at only $40 grossed an hour per worker and after paying his workers and for supplies, the guy had to be taking in $400 a day (=$1,000 now) for himself. That's more--far more--than I was making! And if he had yet other associates working other shopping areas nearby, it could've been a lot more.
Read more from Quora >>
Realistically, we are actually slaving away to make our bosses wealthy. To achieve time and financial independence, being an entrepreneur is the only way to go. But if we are entrepreneurs who work alone, we are being delusional. A true entrepreneur is one who knows how to leverage time and the efforts of others. As billionaire J.Paul Getty once said, "I would rather have 1% of the efforts of 100 people than 100% of my own efforts."
From Quora
What should we do to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship?
Charles Tips, Serious student of economics
I was in my fourth year in retail before my partner and I ever had lunch together. Just couldn't leave the store without at least one of us there. We had $7/hour employees (=$17 now), all of them college grads, who simply would not take on more authority. They each saw themselves in a temporary position pending finding their real place in life. They didn't want to know anything or take on any additional responsibility, yet they did frequently want to know why they weren't getting paid more.
We had three direct competitors within blocks of us. When I bought into the company, the store was firmly in fourth place. By the fourth year, when I could finally dine during store hours with my partner, we were doing as much business as the other three put together. We were good, but we were also keenly aware we were not making money. I think our profit in Y4 on $1.4M in sales was $6,000. No raises, no nothing.
We'd lost our window washer. When one didn't come along, I finally pulled out the Yellow Pages. Just then, a funny character walked in my store. I recognized him instantly from his cranberry corduroy bell bottoms, way out of fashion, as a follower of the Rajneesh movement popular then. He was wearing a white disco shirt with strawberry-blond curls for hair, early twenties, about 5'2. He was toting a grocery sack and proudly showed me the several well-worn and thumbed-through books it contained--on the godhead, on mystic enlightenment, Nirvana (before the Seattle grunge scene), what have you.
I waved that aside. "What can I do for you?"
"Can I wash your windows?"
"Sure."
"Can I get paid in advance?"
"Why do you need to get paid in advance?"
"So I can buy the supplies I need."
I looked him over. He was just too naïve to be using guile on me, so I marched him a few blocks away to the janitorial supply store. I got him the tools of the trade, all top-end stuff--bucket, squeegee, extension pole, gallon of glass cleaner... he was set. It came to almost $40, so I told him he owed me two window washings. He was delighted.
He worked at a snail pace, but he was fastidious. Got the job done. I took him to the other three merchants on the block, knowing they were missing our old window guy as well, and vouched for his work. He cleared $60 that afternoon plus a complete set of tools.
A month later he came in for his paid washing, only he was dressed in a suit and had an associate standing outside the door. It was a tacky, suedish suit, but it let me know instantly that his associate would be handling the work. I gave him a twenty from petty cash and he was off.
In the next days and weeks, I began to encounter his associates all over the downtown area, sometimes as many as three. They worked much faster (he must've been a demanding boss), and I ran the numbers through my head. Even at only $40 grossed an hour per worker and after paying his workers and for supplies, the guy had to be taking in $400 a day (=$1,000 now) for himself. That's more--far more--than I was making! And if he had yet other associates working other shopping areas nearby, it could've been a lot more.
Read more from Quora >>
