Applied Knowledge

Applied Knowledge

We do not get paid for what we know.  We get paid for doing.  We do not get paid for time.  Applied Knowledge is where we get paid.  The flip side is the “time is money” way of thinking.  This is false also.  We do not get paid for “putting in the time” even though some people fool themselves into thinking this way.  We get paid for creating value.  If we spend time without creating value, someone will get fired or some company will go bankrupt, or something will eventually happen that will break the system.  Hours are meaningless.  This is perhaps the most painful thing for people to learn coming out of the factory age.  Working with manual labor in a factory, people made the classical and critical mistake of confusing correlation with causation.  A guy works 60 hours in one week, and gets paid for “time.”  In many instances, an increase in time correlated with increase in unit output, although everybody knows that companies do not get paid for the time they keep employees working, but for the output they produce.  Thus, it was very easy to confuse time and money.  Now that we live in a post industrial age, time and money are so completely disjointed, they are anti-correlative, i.e., usually those who spend the most time “at the office” are usually the least productive.  Production is now completely correlated with mental focus, and not time.  The problem is that manual laborers with a scarcity and poverty mentality - perhaps 80-90 of the population keeps this mentality - still hang on to the “time is money” ritual because for a large part of the 20th century, this correlation existed.  

It no longer exists.  In fact, it never existed.  We just assumed causation when in fact we were experiencing correlation from our brief experience of factory industrialization.  Where are the most productive people most of the time?  Out and about, on vacation, traveling, golfing, socializing, making contacts, and having a blast.  Those of us who are clinging to manual labor rituals and attitudes - where are we?  Making less than $200K always.  Nobody breaks the $200K mark with Work Ethic - you must be absolutely focused on Value Creation to crack that level.  

One can learn all about this with Steve Siebold’s book, “177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class.”

What is another consequence of this old manual labor way of thinking?  You put in the time in school, and now you deserve high pay.  This is another case of confusing correlation with causation.  Again, any form of wealth comes from Value Creation.  Knowledge and certificates are not tradable for wealth.  Only applied knowledge is tradable for wealth.  Mathematical equations are not valuable; mathematical equations solving a problem with a machine for which people purchase is tradable for wealth.  A certificate in psychology is useless.  Applying psychological knowledge to solve a problem with a client who is rich and working through his “head trash” on a multimillion dollar deal is tradable wealth.  

What is another example of industrial poverty mindset?  When we spend hours working on our house or on our cars, we are making the same mistake (with the exception if we are a mechanic or construction worker).  When you spend 5 hours doing something a mechanic can perform in 30 minutes, and you think you “saved a lot of money,” you are making an extremely foolish error.  You pay $100 to a mechanic for a job versus you spending 5 hours?  Think about that.  You can take one hour and think up of new ideas worth at least $200 dollars to cover the charge.  Spending 10 minutes in meditation will gain you well over $100 in value.  Thus, that 5 hours you wasted working on your house or your car could have been spent on things ten times more valuable than the $100 you could have paid a mechanic to do.  This is the foolishness of thinking in a poverty and industrial mindset.  Time is not money.  Time is Life.  

We all need to think Value Creation, and tradeoffs.  You can never get back Time.  So, never trade time for money, or never put yourself in a position with this mindset.  

Then, strange good things begin to happen.  When you “spend” that $100 for the mechanic to fix your car, you will notice that for some strange reason, you have more money and time.  You just never noticed the value of money and time before.  Now, you know. 

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Freddy Martini