Dearest readers, as we get close to the end of the year, we also may be getting closer to performance review season for many employees in the private sector. Performance reviews, for better or worse, serve as a tool to help determine whether or not an employee is eligible for a merit-based increase, and how much that increase should be. For people who don't have time, resources or ability to launch a side hustle and perhaps scale it, that job means everything, and is hopefully on a career trajectory going up. In an increasingly competitive world, the risk of losing that job or losing the career path is getting closer and closer to the risk level of running a business, and that raises red flags. As someone who has been my own boss for a while now, I get to look into this from the outside in, and most of the people I talk to are employees- not business owners (though I like to talk to business owners too). One thing that is becoming obvious to me is that, no matter the salary level, regardless o whether it's an entry level or a senior position, employees need to start investing in their jobs as if the were businesses, and I am going to explain my perspective on how much and in what way. This is not just to keep a job and keep getting promoted, but also because money is the greatest accelerator and life hack in the history of workplaces if you use it the right way.
The first investment category has to do with your appearance and your personal brand. Whether you are working in trades, on the factory floor, or in an office environment, you are called an employee but you are so much more. Remember, companies may have rules, the Ministry of Labour may have rules, so you think everyone is just treated the same way because of that- all of us are equal, faceless cogs. So, why even try to brand yourself? Well, if you ever see someone who looks and acts that way, do not copy them. No matter what you do, you have a unique take on how that job is done, you have a unique set of additional skills and experiences, and most importantly you connect with your equals and superiors on a personal level. So, 7-no matter how you do your work, unless you are an amazing genius at your job, you will be held back if you don't brand yourself effectively so you connect well on that human level. Basically, you will experience gaslighting so subtle that you will never be able to prove it, but you will feel it. Now, branding yourself effectively will not make you friendly with everyone. Many of your equals who just don't want to try too hard and enjoy being miserable will shun you for refusing to be miserable with them and stand together against the "mean" managers. Other equals, however, will get inspired by you and want to be your friends. Managers, of course, will take notice and more often than not be glad that they have you on their team. In order to succeed at this, you need to be as conscientious as possible, you need to strategically plan your brand, and you need to spend money. Investing in your clothes, whether you're at a construction site or in an office is key. Also, maintaining your clothes well and having a clean look show your respect yourself, your work, and you manage your time outside work well. Also, unless you have no choice, get your 7-8 hours of sleep every night and be tenacious about it- your energy levels and focus will inspire others. Spend on healthy foods and supplements- I use a juicer to drink the good stuff mostly from vegetables because I hate salads haha and it's a time saver. Proper nutrition compounds positively over time and gives your personal brand a much needed glow. Finally, there is a fine line between being a workhorse and chasing career success. If you take initiative and work a little more to impress your superiors, that's always a good plan. But, it has to be you. If managers begin assigning you extra work, burdening you so much that the quality of your work and your personal brand begin to suffer, you cannot be afraid to talk to them privately about it. That also comes down to being conscientious. The money part in this instance is having savings just in case something's up with the company. If someone is piling work on you, it means that either the company is in trouble and can't handle hiring the right number of people, or the company is having difficulties firing slackers and getting freshly motivated people to replace them. Either way, you need to strategically protect your brand from the negative effect of these scenarios, and have money to tie you over if the company is going down. If you have to leave and you do so with your personal brand intact, you will get excellent references and quickly rise through the ranks somewhere else.
The next category to invest in is your work equipment and support services. Here, you are again building your brand and differentiating yourself from the rest of the employees. Often times, employees make a mistake by just using whatever they are given by the company in terms of work space, tools and equipment. Let's say you are in a call center and you do a lot of clicking, but the mouse sucks compared to the $120 gaming mouse you have at home. Well, if it'll help your office ergonomics, productivity and so on, bring it with you to work! Same goes for the keyboard. Also, if you think you'll benefit from a second screen to increase your productivity and the company doesn't have that in the budget, go get your own! Another example is being in marketing but your graphic design skills are not that great. What you can do is outsource graphic design to more capable freelancers online, and you get the credit at work! Sure, you could ask the company to expense it, but where will that take you in the long run? Most likely nowhere. Or, let's look at a more physically intensive work like moving. If you work as a mover or in a furniture delivery, you can buy quality steel toe shoes, buy moving straps that let you lift furniture with your forearms safer and easier (super cool stuff, look it up on Amazon), get an industrial back support belt. Don't worry what anyone else says, because soon everyone will want to copy you when they see how much you invest in yourself and value yourself too. Finally, if you work outdoors when it's cold, you can invest in things like heated vests. Just the other day, I saw a fleece lined really cool looking vest that you can use with or without a jacket. You can charge it up or use it with a battery pack like the ones we use for smartphones. It even has multiple temperature settings! This and other forward thinking tools will grow your brand at work and the management will have to consider you for promotions, as this kind of thinking and approach is what every company wants to have as part of its culture. Sure, you may think that companies could start to abuse this and invest less and less in work spaces, hoping employees will pick up the tab. I think that is always the case, whether or not you buy something to make your brand excel at work. If a company gets systemically corrupted that way, you take your brand elsewhere as if you were a business.
The final category is prioritization and dedication. This, dearest readers, is something that many employees could learn from entrepreneurs if only they wanted to do so. Entrepreneurs can spend up to five years or more f being totally consumed with work and building their business. As someone once said, they are the only people who will work 60 hour weeks for themselves so they don't have to work 40 hour weeks for someone else. There is something valuable to learn from that. Many employees, when they just start out, want immediate assurances that there will be work-life balance and that the company they work for will provide that. Sure enough, most companies will. But, just because they could give that to you, it does not mean that you should take it. Entrepreneurs are passionate abut the business they are building, they work more hours to reach their goals faster, and they know that their ultimate reward is partial or complete financial freedom, which I hear is a damn near perfect way to live your life. However, they also know that there is a risky initial period of around five years of lots of work and not enough return on it, and another 5-10 years after that to reach partial or complete financial freedom, provided they don't crash and burn. Now, imagine dedicating yourself to your job the exact same way. Oh, the heights you could reach. You may not be able to reach total financial freedom, but you can become either a specialist or a great manager in your field, have no employment gaps ever again in your life, and retire early to become a highly paid consultant on your terms. Pretty sweet, isn't it? Now, why do many employees fail to achieve that? They fail because it is difficult to convince their various life stakeholders that the job is the Sun in their solar system, and everything else and everyone else have to stay in their proper orbit. Parents, siblings, wives, kids... everyone has to come around to respect your decision, your priority and what it is you aim to achieve. Once they accept it, you have to keep them in their orbits so they don't spin out and collide with you. It is a struggle, sure, but most people who ended up successful because they took on this struggle end up feeling happy they did it.
Life is work, after all, and problems begin when you try to deny it. We need food, shelter, savings, medical, insurance, cars and so much more- and there is nothing wrong with acting like you want it, and let the rest of the cards fall where they may. To deny the need to invest in your job is to deny the need to use everything you can to keep moving up because you need more stuff as you get older and you need some sort of a legacy. Otherwise, you are just pretending to be asleep. To paraphrase an amazing man from a certain recent popular podcast- you cannot wake up someone who is pretending to be asleep.
The first investment category has to do with your appearance and your personal brand. Whether you are working in trades, on the factory floor, or in an office environment, you are called an employee but you are so much more. Remember, companies may have rules, the Ministry of Labour may have rules, so you think everyone is just treated the same way because of that- all of us are equal, faceless cogs. So, why even try to brand yourself? Well, if you ever see someone who looks and acts that way, do not copy them. No matter what you do, you have a unique take on how that job is done, you have a unique set of additional skills and experiences, and most importantly you connect with your equals and superiors on a personal level. So, 7-no matter how you do your work, unless you are an amazing genius at your job, you will be held back if you don't brand yourself effectively so you connect well on that human level. Basically, you will experience gaslighting so subtle that you will never be able to prove it, but you will feel it. Now, branding yourself effectively will not make you friendly with everyone. Many of your equals who just don't want to try too hard and enjoy being miserable will shun you for refusing to be miserable with them and stand together against the "mean" managers. Other equals, however, will get inspired by you and want to be your friends. Managers, of course, will take notice and more often than not be glad that they have you on their team. In order to succeed at this, you need to be as conscientious as possible, you need to strategically plan your brand, and you need to spend money. Investing in your clothes, whether you're at a construction site or in an office is key. Also, maintaining your clothes well and having a clean look show your respect yourself, your work, and you manage your time outside work well. Also, unless you have no choice, get your 7-8 hours of sleep every night and be tenacious about it- your energy levels and focus will inspire others. Spend on healthy foods and supplements- I use a juicer to drink the good stuff mostly from vegetables because I hate salads haha and it's a time saver. Proper nutrition compounds positively over time and gives your personal brand a much needed glow. Finally, there is a fine line between being a workhorse and chasing career success. If you take initiative and work a little more to impress your superiors, that's always a good plan. But, it has to be you. If managers begin assigning you extra work, burdening you so much that the quality of your work and your personal brand begin to suffer, you cannot be afraid to talk to them privately about it. That also comes down to being conscientious. The money part in this instance is having savings just in case something's up with the company. If someone is piling work on you, it means that either the company is in trouble and can't handle hiring the right number of people, or the company is having difficulties firing slackers and getting freshly motivated people to replace them. Either way, you need to strategically protect your brand from the negative effect of these scenarios, and have money to tie you over if the company is going down. If you have to leave and you do so with your personal brand intact, you will get excellent references and quickly rise through the ranks somewhere else.
The next category to invest in is your work equipment and support services. Here, you are again building your brand and differentiating yourself from the rest of the employees. Often times, employees make a mistake by just using whatever they are given by the company in terms of work space, tools and equipment. Let's say you are in a call center and you do a lot of clicking, but the mouse sucks compared to the $120 gaming mouse you have at home. Well, if it'll help your office ergonomics, productivity and so on, bring it with you to work! Same goes for the keyboard. Also, if you think you'll benefit from a second screen to increase your productivity and the company doesn't have that in the budget, go get your own! Another example is being in marketing but your graphic design skills are not that great. What you can do is outsource graphic design to more capable freelancers online, and you get the credit at work! Sure, you could ask the company to expense it, but where will that take you in the long run? Most likely nowhere. Or, let's look at a more physically intensive work like moving. If you work as a mover or in a furniture delivery, you can buy quality steel toe shoes, buy moving straps that let you lift furniture with your forearms safer and easier (super cool stuff, look it up on Amazon), get an industrial back support belt. Don't worry what anyone else says, because soon everyone will want to copy you when they see how much you invest in yourself and value yourself too. Finally, if you work outdoors when it's cold, you can invest in things like heated vests. Just the other day, I saw a fleece lined really cool looking vest that you can use with or without a jacket. You can charge it up or use it with a battery pack like the ones we use for smartphones. It even has multiple temperature settings! This and other forward thinking tools will grow your brand at work and the management will have to consider you for promotions, as this kind of thinking and approach is what every company wants to have as part of its culture. Sure, you may think that companies could start to abuse this and invest less and less in work spaces, hoping employees will pick up the tab. I think that is always the case, whether or not you buy something to make your brand excel at work. If a company gets systemically corrupted that way, you take your brand elsewhere as if you were a business.
The final category is prioritization and dedication. This, dearest readers, is something that many employees could learn from entrepreneurs if only they wanted to do so. Entrepreneurs can spend up to five years or more f being totally consumed with work and building their business. As someone once said, they are the only people who will work 60 hour weeks for themselves so they don't have to work 40 hour weeks for someone else. There is something valuable to learn from that. Many employees, when they just start out, want immediate assurances that there will be work-life balance and that the company they work for will provide that. Sure enough, most companies will. But, just because they could give that to you, it does not mean that you should take it. Entrepreneurs are passionate abut the business they are building, they work more hours to reach their goals faster, and they know that their ultimate reward is partial or complete financial freedom, which I hear is a damn near perfect way to live your life. However, they also know that there is a risky initial period of around five years of lots of work and not enough return on it, and another 5-10 years after that to reach partial or complete financial freedom, provided they don't crash and burn. Now, imagine dedicating yourself to your job the exact same way. Oh, the heights you could reach. You may not be able to reach total financial freedom, but you can become either a specialist or a great manager in your field, have no employment gaps ever again in your life, and retire early to become a highly paid consultant on your terms. Pretty sweet, isn't it? Now, why do many employees fail to achieve that? They fail because it is difficult to convince their various life stakeholders that the job is the Sun in their solar system, and everything else and everyone else have to stay in their proper orbit. Parents, siblings, wives, kids... everyone has to come around to respect your decision, your priority and what it is you aim to achieve. Once they accept it, you have to keep them in their orbits so they don't spin out and collide with you. It is a struggle, sure, but most people who ended up successful because they took on this struggle end up feeling happy they did it.
Life is work, after all, and problems begin when you try to deny it. We need food, shelter, savings, medical, insurance, cars and so much more- and there is nothing wrong with acting like you want it, and let the rest of the cards fall where they may. To deny the need to invest in your job is to deny the need to use everything you can to keep moving up because you need more stuff as you get older and you need some sort of a legacy. Otherwise, you are just pretending to be asleep. To paraphrase an amazing man from a certain recent popular podcast- you cannot wake up someone who is pretending to be asleep.