It may seem a bit weird, but this could have a huge impact on growing your income.
Early 2005. I’d graduated from college, and was bouncing around between careers not so sure what to do with myself.
My latest gig was answering phones for the local gas company.
That is, when you didn’t pay your bill all winter… And we finally shut off your heat source on the first warm day of spring…
I was the guy you’d call and yell at and blame!
AWESOME job. NO sarcasm there…
Here’s what happened next.
I started investing in my knowledge.
Sure, college was an investment.
But this was different.
This was purely on my own accord.
I made my own decision about what knowledge I wanted to obtain — and I went out and invested in it.
It started with a few books that led me to copywriting and marketing.
Within 12 months a couple hundred spent on marketing books had nearly doubled my income…
I went from knowing little-to-nothing about marketing and not even really liking it (having no clue about direct marketing)…
To basically running the marketing department at an online IT training publisher out in Oregon. (With tons of credit to the previous marketing guy, who’d moved up to President and was and still is a dear mentor to this day — who also reads these daily emails.)
I kept investing small amounts on marketing, copywriting, business, selling, and other related books, programs, and more…
And my income kept growing.
In fact, over the following four or so years with that company…
My income doubled AGAIN!
And then I decided to make a serious investment in my knowledge.
Finally feeling like it was time for me to go out on my own as a copywriter and consultant, I made the huge-at-the-time investment of attending a live event for copywriters.
And actually, in the relatively short term, my income dropped. (Won’t lie about that!) But it was a good thing — because I’d just quit my job and went out on my own as an independent consultant!
But I kept on investing in myself, my career, and my business…
And my income and success kept growing, and growing…
Surpassing my work-a-day salary, and then some…
And still growing…
In fact, it’s about as close to a universal rule as I know in business…
If you are consistently INVESTING in yourself, feeding yourself proven methods, systems, and best practices…
If you’re dedicated to continuous improvement…
Even if that means taking the occasional painful leap in how much you’re spending on your own self-education…
It WILL be worth every penny.
The best entrepreneurs I know invest at least 5-figures a year in self-education.
Some even more than that.
I’ve very purposefully adopted the same habit of investing in myself.
(The good news is that it can all be tax deductible — but don’t ask me, ask your accountant!)
It’s almost as if the universe knows and rewards those dedicated to self-improvement…
I don’t know if you believe in this, or if you think it’s too “new age.”
But I think there’s something about being the type of person who invests in yourself that makes the world sit up and take notice.
Maybe there are special forces at work.
Maybe you just act differently when you’re committed to making yourself better.
Maybe it’s something else.
No matter what, it seems to really make a difference.
And so I encourage you to never be afraid to invest in yourself, your knowledge, and your business…
It doesn’t matter if you’re a consultant or copywriter, or a business owner…
The same principle applies…
You will reap what you sow.
So get planting.
But first, you’ll have to invest in the seeds.
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
Editor, Breakthrough Marketing Secrets
Thanks Roy for this reminder that you can turn straw into gold, but you can't turn air into gold.
If skills are the basic bio ingredient – the straw -the tricky bit is which straw do you invest in – which is going to be the best for you, right now, to move forward?
Figuring out what training you need, in what order…haven't we all spent money in 'training' that over-promised and under-delivered? Or maybe it was good – but wrong choice, wrong time…that's certainly not all training – there is plenty that's golden, worth the investment. It's just being able to tell the difference. As you say, you reap what you sow. Sow good seed, harvest quality straw…then spin that into gold.
Agreed Jackie — you do have to invest in the RIGHT resources for this to make sense.
And yet it's worth remembering that you're usually better off investing in a resource and finding a way to make it pay off, than letting analysis paralysis stop you from investing in ANYTHING because you can't find what's right.
Hope this makes sense!
Best wishes,
Roy