If You Dont Value Your Time, Nobody Else Will

Posted on 29. Jul, 2008 by in Self Improvement

I was once sat next to a guy who owned a private jet… I asked him for one piece of advice that I could use in life and business, and he replied: “If you don’t value your time, nobody else will”.

This is so true.

Time is the single biggest asset in our lives, it is far more important that money.

Afterall, would you accept 1 billion dollars if it meant you died 15 minutes later?

It is more important than health, afterall, bad health just leads to less time on this planet.

In fact, seeing as my time is spent pretty much evenly between super-successful people, and every day people, I can see that this is perhaps the biggest reason why rich people get richer, and poor people stay poor.

I once knew a guy who was one of the most talented machanics I have ever seen…. there was nothing he couldn’t do to a car. Yet, despite this amazing talent, he was on a minimum wage job, working for a high-street chain, with terrible hours and terrible working conditions. In fact, despite doing the thing he loved, he hated doing it.

What’s worse, I would wager that he will continue to do so for many, many years to come.

You see, he didn’t value his time, he just expected that the world would see his talent and pay him accordingly, but it doesn’t work like that… YOU have to value your time before anyone else will.

I remember on many occasions family members and friends would call him at weekends and ask him to come and fix their car… for FREE. To which he always went and did it, despite not being happy about it.

He once did a repair on my car, and I tried my hardest to pay him, I even threatened to tear-up the cash if he didn’t accept, but he didn’t accept. He wouldn’t, he couldn’t.

Was I impressed by this gesture? Did I gain a lot of respect for his sacrifice?

No, I felt sorry for him, and lost a lot of respect for him.

I appreciate that this may sound a little cold and harsh, but that is the way life and buisness can be. So be realistic.

I was walking through town the other day and a man with a clipboard stopped me and tried to get me to sign-up to some credit card offer… he said “Can I have ten minutes of your time”, I replied, “Sure, that will be $150 please”.

He starred at me blankly, and then walked away.

Dean

7 Responses to “If You Dont Value Your Time, Nobody Else Will”

  1. ananna

    29. Jul, 2008

    Time is the single biggest asset in our lives, it is far more important that money.But How it possible?

    Reply to this comment

  2. Alan Kirke

    29. Jul, 2008

    Great post,
    Be interesting to work out our hourly $$$ worth.
    Then realise how much we are worth per hour.
    Then what can be done to increase our hourly worth.

    Reply to this comment

  3. Everett

    29. Jul, 2008

    That is a pretty cool story. And as far as the ten minutes… wow. Your time is VALUABLE! :)

    Reply to this comment

  4. Claudia

    29. Jul, 2008

    I first became aware of time issues when I listened to Pink Floyd on that Album Dark Side of the Moon way back when: I remember those lyrics so clearly:

    Ticking away the moments that make up the dull day

    You fritter and waste the hours in an off hand way

    Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town

    Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

    Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain

    You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today

    And then one day you find that ten years have got behind you

    No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

    And you run and run to catch up with the sun, but it’s sinking

    And racing around to come up behind you again

    The sun is the same in a relative way, but you’re older

    Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

    Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time

    Plans that either come to naught or a half page of scribbled lines

    Hanging on in a quiet desperation is the English way

    The time is gone the song is over, thought i’d something more to say.

    So yeah I understand your post very well!

    Reply to this comment

  5. phil

    29. Jul, 2008

    What a brilliant post with extremely good advice and to top it all off, a world-class one-liner we can all use to great effect ourselves when we´re inevitably approached by some credit card peddler. If the whole world used that line every time someone tried to get them to sign up for a credit card, we could kill the debt industry – now wouldn´t that be a worthwhile venture!

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  6. Mark McCullagh

    31. Jul, 2008

    Good point about putting a value on your time.

    I often think of the people that drive one hour to go to a store where they will save, say $20, on their purchases.

    Well, my time is worth more than $20/hour, let alone the money in gas etc.

    I like thinking this way.

    Reply to this comment

  7. Craig Dewe

    31. Jul, 2008

    Nice work with the clipboard guy…I’ll have to remember that one.

    I remember reading your post ages ago about valuing time and while I still don’t do it properly, it has changed my perspective a lot.

    So thanks for the reminder to keep valuing my time.

    Reply to this comment

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