Most people’s pay increases by approximately 3% in line with inflation.
The cost of living eats away at the middle class’s savings, earnings and, eventually, dreams. If I was to earn 100k this year and qualify for a 3% pay rise next year, I may initially be happy about 3k more pay. However the cost of rent, bread, milk and medicine have all risen by an average of 2% to 3% as well.
As entrepreneurs and business leaders, paying in line with inflation doesn’t make us evil, bloodsucking owners, as generally we can only increase the cost of our goods and services by around the same amount. If a business increased everyone’s pay by 10% or 20% each year it would be a sure way to have no businesses left!
Employees tend to wonder why some people tend to have all the luck. Or why people who are not necessarily smarter or more talented than them win promotions and do well in business?
As small-business owners, we know a secret: it’s nothing to do with luck. Successful people have been taught how to behave in professional settings, how to make opportunities and how to improve themselves so they leave their peers in their wake.
Successful people know how to behave in professional settings, how to make opportunities and how to improve themselves so they leave their peers in their wake.
Working with, training and managing successful professionals all over the world, I’ve found that success leaves clues. Successful people form and share habits that they stick to and follow.
When I started in my career I enlisted a mentor who asked me a question: If you are not investing in yourself, does that mean YOU are a bad investment?
I realised I wasn’t investing in myself at all. I started reading books. I now found that I couldn’t put some titles down. Especially once I realised that people who worked with me could feed off information that I had digested late the night before.
I learnt how to set goals and when I found out that the average millionaire is 57 years old, I realised that I still had time!
If we work from 20 to 70 years of age, we have a career that spans 50 years. If you’re 30 years old, you have only worked 20% of your working life and have a whopping 80% to go. If you’re 45 years old, you still have 50% of your working career ahead of you.
Most employees feel self-development is their employer’s responsibility. That’s fine if they’re happy for their employer being responsible for their destination in life. Most people miss out on opportunities to earn more money because the opportunity is disguised as hard work. Too many people sit around and wait for an opportunity to climb the ladder.
Every promotion I’ve ever given was actually the employee promoting themselves.
When I take leave I always encourage my team to show me what they’re really made of. When I am away it’s no surprise that most of my team’s performance falls off. They start later and finish earlier.
I see too many people doing social activities at work and being only 80% effective, and then when they’re at home with family or friends they are dipping in and out of emails, or worse, stressing about work. If those people were more focused at work they’d perform better and would have less to worry about when they finished for the day.
Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not – the ability to force yourself to do what you should do!
Christopher Dean, CEO and Entrepreneur, www.orangewhistle.com
