Profit vs. Wages

You either get better or you get worse every year but you never stay the same. Obviously there are different degrees of this depending on the effort, or lack thereof, but could you imagine if you lived every day of your life with a constancy of purpose? If you woke up every day determined to accomplish one major feat and had a dominant focus by starting with the end in mind? Don’t you think you would have no choice but to one day obtain this “dream?” This is such a simple concept yet most spend each day just drifting through this gift that is life. Surely nobody wakes up and thinks to themselves, “I just want to be ordinary today.” 

This ingenuity isn’t a new concept, but to my generation it certainly seems to have been lost in the shuffle. A generation with no real leadership and no real accountability; a generation that is seemingly drifting through life without that all-important constancy of purpose. I have been fortunate enough to surround myself with a support group that reminds me daily that the path I am on is the right one, but it was up to me to explore this path that only I have imagined for myself. 

So are you ready to set a better sail this year than last? Where do you see yourself personally and professionally in the next five years? I can clearly understand the difference between profits and wages now that I continue to get better everyday because I know my body of knowledge and hard skills will not allow me to fail. Each day I am making a bet on myself and building my intellectual property to sell to the world.

I certainly haven’t made a fortune as far as wages are concerned, but I am gaining the necessary knowledge to differentiate myself from others. I am putting the profit of my life ahead of wages for others. This is an entrepreneurial mindset every young person needs to understand. As I continue to receive these profits though, I can use them FOR others in spreading wealth. This is the wealth of knowledge.

Stop relying on others to force-feed you information, but instead hold yourself accountable to live a life only you have envisioned. These changes may seem drastic at first but in many great breakthroughs these drastic changes are beyond necessary. If it were easy everybody would do it right? I used to agree with that statement, but now I’ve shifted my rationale to perspective. It’s a shift in behavior to allow yourself to only see the good in any situation.

I talked to a class about my career endeavors and what has gotten me to this point. I started out as a journalist but after two years I realized the direction the newspaper industry was headed and decided it would be best for me to pursue another profession, or even better, add to the hard skills I had already learned. A student in the front row asked how I initially took to this decision since this was my passion. He made the point that he would have had a breakdown if everything he had worked for up to that point was about to drastically change. I would be remised if I said I wasn’t unsure or nervous, but at no point did I regret anything because everything up until that point was giving me the necessary experience to succeed. I learned hard skills that I could take on to any profession, the skill of writing.

After I told him all of this, he had a different perspective on his own life. Instead of tip-toeing through life scared, you have to be ready to take on anything thrown at you. All you can do is your best and forget the rest. 90 percent of the things we fear in life never happen. In essence, take risks and be prepared for failure but don’t fear it. Most great leaders use failure as a barometer to get better.

It’s time to take the blame even if everybody says it’s alright not to. Hold yourself accountability even though everyone else is holding you to different standards. Standards that are not even close to the ones that you have for yourself. We judge others by their actions and we judge ourselves by our intentions. Start judging yourself by your actions. Prove by your actions that you can handle these adversities, and if you’re not ready then get ready.

In a weekly training session with Dr. Colby Jubenville and Coach Micheal Burt, it was said that adversity can be defined as an unwanted outcome. They went further on to articulate that 90 percent of the adversity we face in life is created by our own inability to act or that in our actions we create this adversity. There is a two stage system to handling this adversity caused by our actions. First, we must go through the “What” Stage in understanding what this adversity is trying to teach me and what was my contribution to this adversity. Second, you must “Get” stable, get help, and get busy.

These are the weekly trainings that I have subjected myself to and have made such a positive reinforcement in my life. I am ready to share these teachings to people of my generation because, just like you, I used to be struggling through adversity always asking why me.

Everybody needs a coach in life. I’m no different than any other person my age, outside of the people I meet and the body of knowledge I gain. That’s the point though. Our generation needs someone to speak about these experiences and not allow the “he/she is still young” excuse. Enough with the 30 is the new 20 and at that point they will start to figure it out.

I’ve been at a breaking point several times in my life, but looking back at these pivotal moments I’m grateful beyond belief that I didn’t tuck tail and run back home but have made it on my own. This is a perspective I will forever have and eventually, if you do it long enough, success finds you. Don’t wish it were easier, wish YOU were better.

I realize this message will not get through to everyone. Some may even view this as a “Y I’m Better Than You” stance.For those of you who this does make it to though, I hope that you are ready to join this movement with me. This is a movement to push the millennial generation past accepting mediocrity and into living a remarkable life.

Am I saying from here on out it will be smooth sailing? Absolutely not. In fact, it is going to get harder before it gets easier but I can guarantee you that eventually you will get a win in your life. Though it takes several private victories to get a major public victory, once that victory is had you want more. So you must learn to discipline your disappointment. Things are never as great as they seem, but they are never as bad as they may seem either. Don’t focus on all the wrong doings, but instead the experience itself.

How can we achieve personal greatness? The answer may surprise you but it’s getting back to ingenuity. Service other people and lead them to greatness. It’s ok to take care only for yourself but this will not lead you to greatness.  Don’t ask what people can do for you, but ask what you can do to help others. Let that tail follow you. Help me to LURE Y. Lead, Understand, Revolutionize, and Evolve into the NEXT GENERATION that others no longer see us as a burden but see us as the future. 

Leadership can be defined by seeing the good in someone when it was easy to see the bad. Let’s build this support group and body of knowledge for our generation because we are the next generation to rule the population. Let’s not rely on the people behind the curtains anymore. Let’s start asking the critical questions in life and help each other do the things we normally wouldn’t do with the support of another.

The power of decision-making and critical thinking are skills that separate humans from animals. These critical thinking skills must be practiced, yet we live in an age where any information we could ever need may be found through technology. Instead of taking a concept and implying it to our own personal experience, we have resorted to watching reality television and living through other’s experience. Instead of dancing with our own stars, we sit back in the confinements of our homes and wish that was us. Get out and be somebody today.

Go live your own remarkable life. Make the same poor decisions that I have made, but more importantly learn from those decisions. The only way to get better in anything you do is by experiencing it on your own and learning from it.

Insanity is defined as making the same mistakes over and over without making any changes. Doesn’t it seem insane to live a life without any risk?

It’s amazing the revelation you can make when you are forced to get better. When the people around you push you to the point of breaking, but once you persevere and experience that breakthrough you will demand more from them and from yourself.

It gets back to the ingenuity. Instead of being frustrated at your parents or your boss for “making” you do something become autonomous and do it for yourself!

Once you obtain this autonomy or freedom and realize your differential advantages through experience you have to be able to articulate them to the world. What’s the point in having a story to tell if you cannot share it. Whether it’s because you don’t have that support group or you simply don’t have the rhetoric to do so. Communication is the key in everything we do. We must transform these opportunities into something we deserve and not necessarily need. Let’s give our time to those who deserve it.

Remember, you cannot change all the people in your life, but you can change yourself. Some of these people may not want change but at least you can provide them with the knowledge of potential. Eventually, once they have experience enough pain they will seek out your guidance for that change. I have learned the hard way that not all people want to be helped. They are content with just getting by. But for me, the potential to live an extraordinary life was the reason I took a risk on myself.

I hope you decide t’s time to join a movement and create your own profits and not focus on the wages you either are or are not getting. Once you are focused on the profits, the wealth will come in one form or another. I have worked the past 6 years of my life towards the profits concept and unbeknownst to me, I was able to put myself in a position to succeed.

How do you know when you are ready? You’ll know when you know. When you are put in that situation and forced to either sink or swim. The man makes the moment, the moment doesn’t make the man. So what are you waiting for? Go out and get better today. Find that one high value activity, even on a Saturday, right now which will force you to take the necessary steps to live a life only you can envision for yourself.

Bruce Lund is the Founder & CEO of NEXTPERT, a training and consulting firm offering insight and strategies to help recruit, train, and retain the best of the Next Generation leaders. Bruce is a Next Generation Expert completing his Ph.D. on the leadership of this unique group. Bruce has worked in and through many top organizations and teaches the whole self (Mind, Body, Heart, Spirit) approach in leading these individuals. He is seeking to become THE Leadership Expert Generation Y can count on for guidance to take them from where they are right now and teach them the distinctive habits of successful people to live an extraordinary life.