DEVELOPING YOUR PERSONAL ECONOMY

“You are rewarded not just for what you do but for who you are.” - Terry Mante

WHY IS it that players in the same soccer team are not paid the same wages? How can two people sit in the same lecture room, write the same exam, yet score different marks? How can Thomas Edison, a man who does not have up to one year of schooling be famous for the invention of microphone, telephone receiver, motion picture and over a thousand other inventions? How is it that a person who was born in a manger became the saviour of the world? How can someone who hasn’t been to the university for a degree become the founder of a university?

In the book Future Wealth, Stanley Davis and Christopher Myers shared a scene that involved Spanish legendary artist Pablo Picasso. “A beautiful woman once approached Pablo Picasso in a Paris Café. She asked him to sketch her and offered to pay him fair value. In a few minutes, the artist created a drawing – and asked for 500,000 francs. ‘But it only took you a few minutes,’ the woman protested. ‘No,’ Picasso supposedly replied, ‘it took me about 40 years.’”

You are rewarded not just for what you do but for who you are. Many times we think life is all about doing things but that is not always the case. It’s about who we are and what we are not just what we do. We have to become before we can do. You have to build a personal economy based on your human capital.

In business, capital is a resource you inject into a venture to create value and generate profit. Capital can be money, machine, building or any resource that facilitates the production and delivery process. Human capital refers to the bouquet of core capabilities, knowledge and personality attributes that are embodied in you. It is the sum total of everything you know, all you’ve done, contacts, relationships and the intelligence you exert on your work. This defines your value in the marketplace.

If you want to be counted in the league of magnates, you must develop a valuable personal economy. You must continuously augment your spiritual, mental, physical and social capital.

CULTIVATE SPIRITUAL CAPITAL
BY SPIRITUAL capital, I am not talking about going to church or seeking favours from a native doctor. I am talking about you - your innermost self; the place of your passions, affections and aspirations. The pursuit of spiritual capital leads you to discover a purpose higher than yourself, faith that defies all odds and character that stands the test of time.

ACCUMULATE MENTAL CAPITAL
MENTAL capital is the potent combination of your knowledge, abilities and attitude.

1. Knowledge: This is the content of your mind. The quality of your knowledge determines the value of your personal economy. It is crucial that we fill our minds with the right kind of knowledge and information. When you are knowledgeable, people look up to you for ideas; people rely on you for leadership and inspiration. People will cherish your ideas.

The value of your personal economy will never be higher than what you know. So you need to give the acquisition and use of knowledge an elevated position in your life. And by knowledge, I’m not just talking about going to school, even though that is important. I’m talking about learning and applying essential things that help you to navigate different aspects of your life with meaning and significance.

2. Abilities and attitude: Everybody can be excellent at doing something but not all of us do. The challenge is for each one of us to discover what we can do and harness it. Nonetheless, if you discover your abilities but deride it, your personal economy will be undervalued. Simple, know what you can do and have immense respect for it.

GET PHYSICAL CAPITAL
ISN’T IT a pity to have a very skilful footballer who does not have enough stamina to play for just one half of a game? Many people deem regular activities like sleeping, eating, bathing, drinking of water and walking as matter of course. So we eat anything we want at anytime, we sleep only when we feel drowsy and sometimes we feel that rest is for lazy people.

Don’t wait until something breaks down in you before to pay careful attention to your body. You need physical capital in order to move on with your life.

NURTURE SOCIAL CAPITAL
THIS IS the network of relationships you maintain. It is imperative that we construct useful and fruitful relationships around us. Our worth in life is influenced largely by the people we know and the people who know us. We must deliberately decide to develop a valuable network that we can tap into.

You must make a positive impact on the people you interact with. The impact you make will portray the true value of your human capital. If your life is not touching anybody positively, then what is the essence of your capital? Who will be the consumers of your capital?



© March 2012 Terry Mante
PEDNET
Accra, Ghana