Increase Your Earning
Power by Realizing Your Earning Potential
"Example is not the
main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing."
– Albert Schweitzer
Imagine that
it's possible for you to earn 10 times your current annual
wage. If you're earning $25,000, imagine for a moment that
it's possible for you to earn $250,000, a 1000 percent
increase. What is the greatest obstacle to increasing
your income? You.
The first reaction of most people to that exercise is to smile
briefly and then to begin thinking, "If you knew how many years
it's taken for me to get to what I'm earning today you
wouldn't be suggesting that I could earn 10 times as
much."
Mark Twain once wrote that there are a thousand excuses for
every failure but never a good reason. The tragedy of the
average American is that whereas his or her main preoccupation
seems to be money, or the lack thereof, the average person has
the inherent potential to earn far more than he or she is
doing currently. Is the manager earning $250,000 per year 10
times as smart as the manager earning $25,000? Ten times as
experienced? Does he or she work 10 times harder? Of course
not. None of these are physically or mentally possible, but
there are people in every business earning many times more
than others with the same average age, experience and
intelligence.
In fact, a few years ago in New York, 1,000 men and women were
selected at random and tested for I.Q. Between the one having
the highest I.Q. in this sample and the one with the lowest,
there was a difference of only 2 1/2 times. But between the
person earning the most, who, by the way, was not the one with
the highest I.Q., and the one earning the least, who was not
the one with the lowest I.Q., there was a difference of 100
times in income.
Wallace
D. Wattles in his book The Science of Getting Rich
makes
these points:
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The
ownership of money and property comes as a result of doing
things in a certain way, and those who do things in this
certain way — whether on purpose or accidentally — get
rich, while those who do not do things in this certain way —
no matter how hard they work or how able they are — remain
poor.
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It
is a natural law: like causes always produce like effects,
and, therefore, any man or woman who learns to do things in
this certain way will infallibly get rich.
That the above statement is true is shown by the
following facts: Getting rich is not a matter of environment,
for if it were, all the people in certain neighborhoods would
become wealthy. The people of one city would all be rich,
while those of other towns would all be poor, or all the
inhabitants of one state would roll in wealth, while those of
an adjoining state would be in poverty.
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But
everywhere we see rich and poor living side-by-side, in the
same environment, and often engaged in the same vocations.
When two people are in the same locality and in the same
business, and one gets rich while the other remains poor, it
shows that getting rich is not primarily a matter of
environment. Some environments may be more favorable than
others, but when two people in the same business are in the
same neighborhood and one gets rich while the other fails, it
indicates that getting rich is the result of doing things in a
certain way. And further, the ability to do things in this certain way is
not due solely to the possession of talent, for many people
who have great talent remain poor, while others who have very
little talent get rich. Studying
the people who have gotten rich, we find that they are an
average lot in all respects, having no greater talents and
abilities than other people have. It is evident that they do
not get rich because they possess talents and abilities that
others do not have, but because they happen to do things in a
certain way.
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Getting
rich is not the result of saving, or thrift. Many very
penurious people are poor, while free spenders often get rich.
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Nor
is getting rich due to doing things that others fail to do,
for two people in the same business often do almost exactly
the same things, and one gets rich while the other remains
poor or becomes bankrupt. From all these things, we must come
to the conclusion that getting rich is the result of doing
things in a certain way.
If getting rich is the result of doing things in a
certain way, and if like causes always produce like effects,
then any man or woman who can do things in that way can become
rich, and the whole matter is brought within the domain of
exact science.
The
question arises here as to whether this certain way may not be
so difficult that only a few may follow it. As we have seen,
this cannot be true (as far as natural ability is concerned).
Talented people get rich, and blockheads get rich;
intellectually brilliant people get rich, and very stupid
people get rich; physically strong people get rich, and weak
and sickly people get rich. Some degree of ability to think
and understand is, of course, essential, but insofar as
natural ability is concerned, any man or woman who has sense
enough to read and understand these words can certainly get
rich.
Also,
we have seen that it is not a matter of environment. Yes,
location counts for something. One would not go to the heart
of the Sahara and expect to do successful business.
Getting
rich involves the necessity of dealing with people and of
being where there are people to deal with, and if these people
are inclined to deal in the way you want to deal, so much the
better. But that is about as far as environment goes. If
anybody else in your town can get rich, so can you, and if
anybody else in your state can get rich, so can you.
Again,
it is not a matter of choosing some particular business or
profession. People get rich in every business and in every
profession, while their next-door neighbors in the very same
vocation remain in poverty.
It
is true that you will do best in a business that you like and
which is congenial to you. And if you have certain talents
that are well developed, you will do best in a business that
calls for the exercise of those talents.
Also,
you will do best in a business that is suited to your
locality: An ice cream parlor would do better in a warm
climate than in Greenland, and a salmon fishery will succeed
better in the northwest than in Florida, where there are no
salmon.
But,
aside from these general limitations, getting rich is not
dependent upon your engaging in some particular business, but
upon your learning to do things in a certain way. If you are
now in business and anybody else in your locality is getting
rich in the same business, while you are not getting
rich, it is simply because you are not doing things in the
same way that the other person is doing them.
No
one is prevented from getting rich by lack of capital. True,
as you get capital the increase becomes more easy and rapid,
but one who has capital is already rich and does not need to
consider how to become so. No matter how poor you may be, if
you begin to do things in the certain way you will begin to
get rich and you will begin to have capital. The getting of
capital is a part of the process of getting rich and it is a
part of the result that invariably follows the doing of things
in the certain way.
You
may be the poorest person on the continent and be deeply in
debt. You may have neither friends, or influence, or
resources, but if you begin to do things in this way, you must
infallibly begin to get rich, for like causes must produce
like effects. If you have no capital, you can get capital. If
you are in the wrong business, you can get into the right
business. If you are in the wrong location, you can go to the
right location.
And
you can do so by beginning in your present business and in
your present location to do things in the certain way, which
always causes success. You must begin to live in harmony with
the laws governing the universe.
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