Thank you for making time to read this blog! I appreciate the fact that you might have something else better to do; your list of possibilities and priorities may be a lengthy scroll. I have, hopefully, kept my daily posts to manageable morsels that maximize your reading investment.
Too often, colleagues, customers and the public may not appreciate the value of your time. We hear ‘time is money’, ‘save time’, ‘make time’, ‘invest in the time’ and the like, yet time vanishes with each second. The time came and went, a moment ago. Time is an abstract that we attempt to measure in absolute terms like rate and speed, yet we cannot seem to capture it, like we wish we could our [fast] fading youth.
When you make time, for somebody, you have created an opportunity cost. The value of your time is determined by how you value your time, as well as the person who is receiving your time. Until your time is respected, and you are respected, then people will continue to exploit your time for their ignorant and selfish reasons.
Consider which are the professionals that we tend to respect their time? If time is money, then, consultants, lawyers and medical specialists are highly respected. The ones who charge by the minute is, probably, the ones few would waste time with. When you charge by the month (salary), some people may exploit that. Which is sad, as that’s what people do when they push their luck with you, complain incessantly and verbally, and insist seeing you with pale intentions and barely an agenda, except rant and rave.
I get annoyed when teachers have to constantly bring work home. I do not think that they should be overworked, emotionally bludgeoned with parents’ concerns, and sacrifice their personal time in the name of student/school grades. I’d rather have a fresh, courageous and alert teacher in school in the morning than a subjugated one.
What will you do to respect somebody’s time? How do you get others to recognize your time? How do you make your time valuable for your clients? How would a professional treat another professional’s time?
If you want anyone to respect your time, respect his time, too, unless you want to be charged for it!
In case you’d like to spend your time writing your journal, spreading the good news of your passions, or being inspired by others, here is a useful article of a social entrepreneur, Blake Mycoskie of Toms Shoes. For every pair of shoes he sells, he gives one pair of shoes to a child who needs it.
2 comments:
Behind every successful entrepreneur is a team that works hard and slogs to make the brand successful and the business a pro-profit making one.
While you and i may not see or share the need of long hours of working, it seems to be everywhere else after i spent some time chatting with fellow business owners at a recent tradeshow.
Tom's managed to strike a balance, for the founder to be flying and spreading his message, while he hired an extremely efficient and stylish crew to setup his brandname. And it's successful : cos i own a pair of silvery glittery Tom's.
I agree that being an entrepreneur - in the early months and years - involves laborious long hours. Perhaps, it being a labour of love helps ease the hunger pangs for 'success'. Paying our staff and suppliers on time are the early success we yearn for.
However, as time passes and the business stabilises and finds it footing in its branding and brand reputation, being diligent and conscientious can take us only so far. That's when we need to create, invent, rediscover and innovate to bring our business to the next level of relevance. The first five years may be tough, however the half-decade may be tougher. That's what separates the wheat from the chaff.
I strongly one can establish a dynamic and harmonic balance between lifestyle and business vision. Jack Welch of GE notoriously called it work-life choice instead of balance or harmony. Perhaps he was correct. At various stages of our company's development, we can challenge ourselves, our team and our values.
The Chinese word for business is 'sheng yi' - living with meaning. If what we do loses meaning, it would be time to review our business. Perhaps, time to reward ourselves with 'happy shoes'. There's no place like home - Dorothy, Wizard of Oz.
Thanks for sharing.
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