Learn with Your Time – Earn with Your Mind

In the last post we explored the role of dreams and dreamers in manifesting prosperity.  I told you that all true prosperity is created twice: first in the mind of a dreamer, and secondly on the physical plane.  Let’s go down the rabbit hole deeper and look at another mental element of the process.  Because one of the more important principles of building wealth is applying leverage.  And as I made the case in this podcast, I believe the most elegant way to do that is to make money with your mind. 

I chose the title above – Learn with Your Time – Earn with Your Mind – because that may be the foundational principle of wealth building.  Whenever you’re earning with your body, you’re going to face the limitations of time.  When you earn with your mind, those limitations evaporate, because you can apply the principles of leverage to negate them. 

• Forget about college degree versus without. That premise needs to be retired.
• Forget about experience versus inexperience. That premise needs to be retired.
• Forget about white-collar versus blue-collar. That premise needs to be retired.

Think instead, about leveraged versus not leveraged. That is the premise that matters most when it comes to creating wealth today. 

Even though there are real and undeniable issues in terms of income inequity and systemic bias in the system holding back the poor, these barriers become weaker every day – thanks to the advance of technology and how it can be harnessed for leverage.  This is not meant to brush those inequities off as inconsequential. They’re not, and I speak to that issue here.  The point is, there has never been a better time in human history to transcend those barriers.  Until the barriers are eliminated, you have to work your mind more than your body(time).  By using your mind to earn instead of your time, you can leapfrog past people who are unaware of the power of leverage. 

You can leverage your money.  You might only put down $100,000 and buy a $2 million apartment building which would leverage your earning power.  That’s good, but you will need someone to lend you the money. 

You can leverage your labor.  Instead of mowing ten lawns a day, you can hire 10 workers who each mow ten lawns a day, again leveraging your earning power.  But you’ve got to find the right ten people, manage payroll, manage schedules, worry about who will show up, and the approximately 5,439,251 other things employers have to contend with. 

However, when you leverage your reputation and time, you’re not dependent on anyone else.   Going back to the basic premise above, you use your time to learn, then apply that learning so you can use your mind to earn. 

Dedicate your time to learning knowledge that your mind can apply to earning.  You can then start a cycle where every day you’ll wake up wealthier than when you were when went to sleep the night before – and continue on that cycle for the rest of your life. 

Please re-read that last paragraph again, because it’s a BFD. Whenever you’re using your time instead of your mind, you will always have a limited capacity to build your wealth and net worth.  A brain surgeon earns an extremely lucrative hourly rate, but she can be out earned by any high school dropout who knows how to harness the power of leverage.  When you cease working with your time, and instead employ that time to learn skills and knowledge that your mind can utilize to earn – you escape the “trade time for money” model, which is inherently finite and limited.  

Let’s deal with the practical application aspect of all this…

Not everyone is in a situation to do this immediately.  If you’re young, poor and just starting out, you may have to use your body and your time to earn.  I washed dishes, worked construction, and delivered a whole lot of pizzas.  I was able to escape that reality because while I did those manual labor things, I was also working to learn new skills and knowledge on the side.  That’s the path to prosperity for most people. 

Some people labor for 8 (or 12) hours in a tough job and then binge on Netflix until they fall asleep.  Some people labor for 8 (or 12) hours in a tough job and still make time to learn and grow, preparing themselves for a brighter future.  You want to be in the second group.  (And if you’re reading this online on your own smart phone or laptop – you have a better-than-great opportunity to be in this second group.)

If you take your time to learn practical application skills like developing algorithms, writing code, or building a direct selling team, you’ll be able to use your mind and practice leverage.  Broader based skills such as critical thinking, lateral thinking, writing, and speaking will also allow you to use your mind and practice leverage.  And acquiring knowledge in many fields, particularly marketing, persuasion, and psychology will give you the same opportunity.  Be the best employee you can be, while learning the skills and knowledge which make you so valuable no one can afford to hire you ever again.  

Once you reach the state where you can earn with your mind, you can employ leverage as a force multiplier, much like compound interest.  You have the ultimate wealth-building superpower.   

Peace,

- RG