Pay Yourself First Expanded

Pay yourself first is not a new concept.

Traditionally it refers to putting your finances on auto-pilot to facilitate emergency savings and retirement, or savings goals. I think we should expand on this concept to include looking forward and investing in ourselves, taking advantages of available resources today, and laying a marketable foundation for the future.

Invest in the business of you

The stock market is always way up or way down. The cost of bare necessities are up and still going that way until gas prices dip and you feel like we won the lottery. It seems as if unemployment is on the same roller coaster.

It is my belief that at some point in our lives there will be this search for more in our careers. Perhaps it happens after ten or twenty years on the job. It most likely will happen when you are left behind by that thing you’ve poured all your energy, time and resources in.

For many of us it happens when we find ourselves shunned or left back in another state when the job moves away or disappears all together. We ask ourselves, what do we do now. Well, it’s back to the job market. Filling out applications. Weathering rejections. Applying for jobs below our skill set to keep food on the table.

For others it will happen when you are looked over for promotions or every time you get new management or another company buys your old one. After a while of going through these ups and downs you realize that your job is as fickle as the stock market. The job’s fick-ality is actually tied to the stock market.

So, whether you have felt this in your career or not, just sit with the notion that maybe one day you might have this feeling. One day there will be someone that passes you over though you’ve worked above and beyond what was asked of you. One day you will want to find the job you choose, not the one that was available. When that day comes, how will you react?

The key is to not put emphasis on the job or things. Put the emphasis on yourself. Broaden your knowledge on topics that interest you, whether they relate to a job promotion or not. Talk to people who have nothing to do with your field or occupation. Learn. Seek out what interest you. Try something new.

I wish someone had pulled me aside years ago and relayed a couple of messages.

These concepts are not just for entrepreneurs. I encourage all of us to look at them and decide how they relate to our current job or business in terms of the future and job security.