SELF IMPROVEMENT - THE MILLION DOLLAR EQUATION

A million dollars? Yes - and more if you really want it.

I am not suggesting that you be in the business arena for strictly financial reasons. Money is, however, a yard stick to gauge the amount of value you are bringing to your employer and/or to clients.

The equation for an extra million dollars is quite simple. Work harder on yourself than you do for your employer. Say what? Yes, the better you get, the more value you are bringing to your employer - because you have become more valuable.

COMPONENTS OF THE EQUATION

Understand that you can get better. I have never met anyone who could not become 25% more effective when they acknowledge their short comings or when a leader tells them the truth.

Gain every 5 minutes you can. Pick up an extra 5 minutes each day and you will gain an extra 20+ hours annually. Most people can gain an extra hour each day by eliminating the time-wasting functions they perform each day. What are you doing that you should not be doing and what are you not doing that you should be doing?

Example? You now spend 15 minutes each day talking to 1 co-worker or 1 client where it can be done in 5 minutes. 250 days at 15 minutes equates to 3750 minutes. Reduce the time it takes to converse to just 5 minutes and the daily ritual now equates to 1250 minutes. You just picked up 2500 minutes or 1 whole week during the year.

You may drive 15 or 30 minutes to work. If you invest in audio tapes, you have a university on wheels for 15 or 30 minutes - one way.

Find a mentor. Make it someone who has failed a lot more than you have at this point. You see, the person you view as very successful has probably failed more because they are doing more - and doing more new things.

Don't call your potential mentor and say "I would like to buy you lunch." Very successful people hear that a lot. What the caller is really saying is "I am too cheap to pay for your advice, but I would like to spend $5 or $10 to milk your brain." Why not send a tailored gift to the individual before you call with the lunch invitation. Set yourself apart from the takers.

Read more trade magazines than anyone else. They are usually free. And don't just read the magazines in your own industry. If that is all you read, you are reading what your co-workers and competitors are reading. That means you are still stuck in the same box they are in.

Back to the million dollars. If you are thirty and earn $30,000, get twice as good and earn $60,000. That's a $30,000 increase over the next 40 years. If my math is any good, that equals an extra $1.2 million.

I know a professional who made $90,000 and now earns over $500,000. I know a 24 year old who made $20,000 two years ago and is now approaching $40,000. I know that the $1 million equation is not for everyone - because it is not easy.