What Has Been Earned and How To Invest In Yourself So You Can Earn

For over 15 years I have been a football coach, I have been privileged to work with many young athletes and families, and I have been lucky enough to own a business, work with customers and try to help them for the better part of almost 20 years, so here is how i define what has been earned and what it means to Invest.

#1 No 17 year old had earned anything yet and most adults never gave themselves a chance. I get why parents, athletes, workers feel there athlete or themselves has EARNED a spot on a team, or deserve a pay raise or why a young person feels they have earned the right to do or say something, but most have not earned anything or developed the earning capacity. The definition of EARN is:

A: to receive as return for effort and especially for work done or services rendered
A : to come to be duly worthy of or entitled or suited b : to make worthy of or obtain for the suggestion

See earning is very different then ability or talent, to earn is receiving a return for the work you put in, I.E the labor or investment you put in. So I ask, at 17 in sports or as an adult at your job, who has put in any work, are you working 40,50,60 hours a week or more on your craft for a very long extended period of time. How can you have earn if, you have been just showing up, going through the motions and putting in a limited amount of time and effort.

In order to earn and receive a return you must continue to invest over the long haul year in and year out day in and day out in order to have the opportunity for the return. Se in the definition, it doesn’t say you EARN this if you put in 10 hour or you get EARN this if you put in 100 hours, what is says is that you earn for services rendered and it does not give a timeframe. In definition 2 it goes a step further, It discusses to come to be DULY WORTHY OF or ENTITLED OR SUITED and further by suggestion.

Definition 2 can only happen when others feel you have done something to be WORTHY or a 3rd party feels you deserve it. That means you begin to chase earning something that may or may not be attainable, without first investing in one’s craft.

In sports and in business, if you expect to earn because of something you “THINK” you have done and earned you will always be disappointed. Earning ability is subjective to the person who is viewing the potential earner.

HERE IS MY SUGGESTION!

FOCUS ON INVESTING

Warren Buffet Believes In Investing In Yourself, It Seems To Have Worked Out For Him

No, I am not talking about it in a financial capacity, although investing in your success financially is important. I am talking about investing in HARD WORK, SWEAT EQUITY, LIVING AND LEARNING, PRACTICING EVERY DAY FOR HOURS, AND WORKING AS CLOSE TO 100% CAPACITY AS YOU CAN.

To Invest: devote (one’s time, effort, or energy) to a particular undertaking with the expectation of a worthwhile result.

Devoting one’s time, effort, or energy to something with the expectation of a worthwhile result. I feel this definition is so critical for any athlete, business person or individual trying to create success. You are only as good in what you put into something with the expectation of result. That does not mean a guarantee! What it does mean that if you DO NOT INVEST you will not get any result. So what does that mean?

For an athlete that means working hard and tirelessly on your craft, day in and day out so you have that chance at the result you desire, but WHAT IS A GUARANTEE is that IF YOU DON’T INVEST YOU WILL NOT GET ANY RESULTS! So understand if you want the opportunity and the chance to be successful you must invest in yourself and your craft! This means for athletes when they work out they must be all in, when they practice they must practice with maximum effort.

Worked For Napoleon Hill in Think and Grow Rich, Worked For Jerry Rice the greatest receiver of all time in the NFL

When they learn as a student they must be a diligent learner. The option if you don’t do that is MINIMUM OUTPUT and MINIMUM EARNING POTENTIAL! You must invest in the process of what you are doing, your productivity levels must be very high and very efficient and you must INVEST DAILY in order to have the opportunity for success, for the chance at earning and the ability to expect a worthwhile result.

So as a young person you haven’t earned until YOU INVEST for thousands and thousands of hours. As an employee until you invest in your craft and learn and develop your skills you will not GET TO EARN and you will not achieve the best results. How can just showing up give you the ability to grow and earn it doesn’t, not until you INVEST in effort, energy, and time you will never get the chance for great results.

“In “So Good They Can’t Ignore You,” author Cal Newport says that what makes ridiculously successful people so successful is they’re experts at practicing — they can push themselves to the exact limit of their skillset and thus expand their abilities day after day. If you’re not expanding yourself in such a fashion — called deliberate practice in the org psych lit — you’ll never be ridiculously successful.”

Malcolm Gladwell Argues you need 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become a master in your craft. That may or may not be true, but your ability to address the skill needed and the ability to invest the time and effort and energy necessary to become the best is critical.

Gladwell does stat in clarification of his argument “There is a lot of confusion about the 10,000 rule that I talk about in Outliers. It doesn’t apply to sports. And practice isn’t a SUFFICIENT condition for success. I could play chess for 100 years and I’ll never be a grandmaster. The point is simply that natural ability requires a huge investment of time in order to be made manifest. Unfortunately, sometimes complex ideas get oversimplified in translation.”

TRANSLATION is you must INVEST to have a CHANCE to be SUCCESSFUL. So the next time you feel you have earned something you must ask yourself, your family member, your teammate, or your co-worker, what did you INVEST in order to think you deserve some reward or earned something. If they answer is 100% all the time in your craft, then there is a chance you can get there, but if its a percentage less that 100% then your chances of success significantly drop. The mirror never lies and if you invest in yourself you can always give yourself the best chance and opportunity for success and earn your way up the ladder, in sports, in business and in life.

This article is written by David Schuman, email me with comments and suggestions on here or send me your thoughts at the below on twitter or email me at dave@nucsports.com

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