Kay:
Hey there Questers, we hope you’re having a Working Wednesday today! It’s August 4th, the heat of the summer. We’re in the middle of it, the thick of it. This is episode 413 and we have a Jim Rohn quote for you today. He’s an American entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker, the father of personal growth and development. This quote was submitted by our fellow Quester and dear JMT DNA family member Ms. Lisa Slack.
Shi:
Jim’s quote is, “Work hard at your job and you can make a living. Work hard on yourself and you can make a fortune.”
Kay:
Now, you can see where we were tying in that work hard Wednesday because either way, whether you’re making a living or making a fortune, you’re working hard.
Shi:
Working hard is part of the equation if you’re trying to build anything. In fact, even if you’re trying to destroy something, there’s still a fair amount of work in it. Not as much as if you’re trying to build it. But needless to say, here ‘at work’ is the important part of it but it’s a matter of where you put that focus and attention. Jim is making the point here there’s nothing wrong with making a living. Many people strive to make a living and maybe that’s because they don’t know any better. Maybe that’s because they like the simple life or a comfortable life or a certain style or a blueprint that they’ve pictured for themselves. But many who work to make a living are unsatisfied, who do strive for more, want more, and get frustrated that even though they continue to work harder, they’re still just making a living.
Kay:
Well, if you can take that working harder piece and maybe put it into the mirror and take a look at yourself, you start to see the dividends come back. Not at first, but over time, for sure and if you can do hard, work hard to make yourself a living while you work hard on yourself to gain this fortune, I think that that, that is something that can help to accelerate you down the line. I do think that it’s important to note here that Jim Rohn says the word fortune, but he doesn’t say riches. He doesn’t say millions. Fortune can mean very many good things because working hard on yourself, even if maybe you don’t make a million dollars, will make you feel fortunate because working on yourself has that effect.
Shi:
It’s that common thread that no matter what you experience in your life, there is one thing that never changes in the presence of you, which means if you are miserable then all of those experiences will be seen through a miserable lens. That can be just one of, I think, the saddest atrocities of life is someone who never gets to realize that they’re the one holding that lens up. The way we remove that lens is by working on ourselves. Now, a common trap is it feels luxurious to work on yourself. Or the concept of self-development and improvement feels like maybe it’s soft or it’s just selfish or it’s mumbo jumbo and it’s not really valid. What’s valid is the equation of putting in hours at a job and what’s valid is the equation of how much money you bring home. You don’t get money for working on yourself. In fact, most times you have to pay to work on yourself and so there can be a lot of difficulty around making that a priority of working on yourself. But as Jim demonstrates, what you get is so much bigger than a living.
Kay:
Now, down the line, the living, and then some is likely to happen if you work hard on yourself. But I’m so glad that you brought that up, Shi, because it can literally be years of working hard on yourself before you find any kind of fortune, or you find a job that lights you up while you make that living. But one of the other things that I love about this quote is that I think it really displays well toward leaders and leadership. If you work hard at your job, let’s just say you work at a Walmart and you are the best cashier ever and you just work on being a cashier and you work day in and day out, and you’re a cashier and that’s that you’re going to be a cashier for life, for 20 years you’re going to be a cashier.
But if you’re a cashier who learns a little bit about leading people, who learns a little bit about adaptability, who learns a little bit about managing or solving team conflict… now you’ve made yourself more invaluable and you’re more likely to move up! So, if you just work hard, the task at hand, you can make it work. You can make yourself that living. But any growth, working hard on yourself, in your environment, working hard on yourself to stretch and try new things, or the best kind of growth, which is a condensed growth, which is paid for and delivered by professionals can really help you make a fortune over time.
Shi:
Alright, so to remind you, the beautiful Lisa Slack submitted this quote from Jim Rohn, “Work hard at your job and you can make a living. Work hard on yourself and you can make a fortune.”
Kay:
Alrighty, guys, we have a Wealth Wednesday Quest. Today we want you to get more wealth by working hard on yourself. Choose the style of personal development that suits you and hey, being here, you’ve done it, way to go, and your goal. So, maybe this is going to be reading, following a guided meditation, working out, doing some journaling, and start building that wealth of wisdom with us right here right now today. Are you ready? Say it with us!
Kay & Shi:
Let’s quest!