Now I lay me down to sleep...
When a thought hits me right between the ears at somewhere around mach two. I (and others) have often remarked, "Time and money are interchangeable." Not enough time to complete a project, throw money at the conflict.
Not enough money to create that new product (or division, or business startup), just start throwing time at the idea. Spend weekends and holidays slaving away. Sounds simple enough. In fact, it even seems to make sense.
Wrong
I write a lot. I spend more time thinking. Listening to my iPod, just thinking stuff up. How to fix this challenge, how to fix that problem, how to make money both now, and more in the future.
Time ≠ Money
This might be my biggest breakthrough. Ever. Not to brag too much (just enough), I have had some great breakthroughs. But this takes the cake.
A dear friend, my pastor, and my employee, George Brayton tried to teach me a lesson about money circa 1990. I did not "get" the metaphor he used. And he would not disclose the message of the parable. Then a few short years later, at age 60, he woke up dead. Dead to us, but what a day of rejoicing that must have been in Heaven. But I digress...
He said, "Lend me $20 right now."
So, I pulled out two $10 dollar bills as I recall, and handed them to him. He then suggested that I would want my money back, to which I agreed. He reached into a different pocket, pulling out a $20 bill, and handed it to me. Then looked me in the eyes, and asked:
What is the lesson?
I had no idea. Over the years I have come up with a pretty good guess. George preached (among other things) that you should never, not ever, miss a payment on a debt. Never. He actually built a house using his credit cards to finance it, as he knew he could not get the loan he wanted at the rate he wanted to pay! Then he had it appraised (at a significantly higher value than his costs), and financed it for about 70% of its value, more than paying off his credit cards. And earning a substantial discount on the interest rate. He then used the 'profits' to expand his food service business.
Last night, it hit me like a ton of bricks.
Money can be replaced.
Time cannot.
That is huge. Maybe not to you... maybe not today... maybe not ever. However, that doesn't change the fact: time, once expended, may not be recovered.
Have an investment go bad? So what. Get over it. Life happens.
Ever wait an hour on a prospect in a small dingy make-shift lobby, only to have them half-heartedly listen to your presentation? We all have. Allow me to let you in on a secret: you will never get that hour back. It is gone forever.
More importantly the leverage that hour might have given you is also gone.
Interested in making money?
Call me.
Together, lets leverage our talents (for sure), but let us master the brief time we have together. To accomplish some truly worthy goals.
Jeff 'SKI' Kinsey, Jonah
Throughput.us LLC
(330) 432-3533
©2008 Jeff SKI Kinsey. All rights reserved.