I’ll explain why now, in your job search, may be the best time of your life.  And why wanting money is as important as wanting a job.  We can make peace with the truth that wanting money isn’t greed.   Let me start.

DOES GOING TO SCHOOL EQUAL GETTING A JOB?

While many of the schools will teach you that going in debt with student loans equals job opportunities that’s one of the biggest myths out there.   According to Above The Law,  law schools among others lied about income potential.  The same holds true for pharmacy schools.  Everyone is told what the “potential” is to get you to cough up tuition.

This was exactly what was needed for the school to get the kind of money they were seeking.   But not the students who found the real world didn’t pay the same.     One friend of mine found out that after her nursing degree she was only able to earn a third of what the education promised.   Every few days I come across articles about schools making outrageous promises.

ABC News reports “1.5 million, or 53.6 percent, of bachelor’s degree-holders under the age of 25 were jobless or underemployed last year.”   Most of those with jobs are graduating with a degree only to end up working in retail, customer service, and service positions.

This is further evidence that many of these students failed to live up to potential.  But who’s potential?  That of the educators projections or their own?   the fact is they failed to live up to their own.  So who’s fault is it?  In some ways yours, but I’ll teach you how to get over that and make peace with your need to want the same things the rich folks want.

So yes, Schools tell you what the “Potential” is.  In electronics voltage is considered “potential energy” meaning, you can use up to that amount.  At home you have 120 volts in each outlet.  But your cell phone cord only uses 5 of that.

If you were capable of 120 volts but only asked to give 5 at each of your jobs would you really know your potential?    No, but you should.

HOW IS THIS MY FAULT?

It’s your fault because you didn’t know your full potential.

We’ve grown up in a world of convenience stores on every corner.  Fast food that feeds us on the way to and from our comfort zone jobs.   But is this isn’t getting close to reaching our full potential.  When was the last time you cooked a whole chicken instead of buying it already prepackaged?  When was the last time you split firewood instead of buying a plastic wrapped cluster with a handle out front of your supermarket?  When was the last time you did something innovative?

ALL of these things we can do for ourselves allow us to see our own potential.  But the fact is most of us have no clue what our real potential really is.  But I can tell you this.  In the job interview who has more of a chance getting hired?  The one who’s just looking for a job or the one who’s living life to their fullest and has a great story to tell in the interview?

You can be a job seeker but to an employer if that’s all you are that’s all you’re worth.

WHY IS NOW POSSIBLY THE BEST TIME OF MY LIFE?

Because you’re about to find your true potential.   For those of you that have you’re done with step one and you’re ready for step two.  For those who haven’t I’ll add some insight.

Most of us left high school and hit the job market.  Most of us had what I could call “crappy” jobs.  We worked for abusive employers, saw people and ourselves mistreated, we were asked to go above and beyond for the “good” of the company only to find out that’s not compensated.  We created innovative ways to save the company money and ended up getting fired without so much as a thank you note.  My list of lousy jobs and bad experiences would rival anyone’s.

Do you judge your employers like I did mine?   I personally would say the following statements:

They could pay us more competitively

They should give us more supplies

They shouldn’t be so pushy about the quotas or add-ons

They shouldn’t ding us for being a little late if we’re staying late all the time

They should reward me for my innovation

They should take better care of the customers

They shouldn’t lie to customers

They shouldn’t charge so much for their services

and lastly….  THEY’RE NOT LIVING UP TO MY VIEWS OF THEIR POTENTIAL.

Whoah, did you see that?????     In my easy life crappy jobs I spent more time trying to see their potential than seeing mine?  And I’m going to tell you why I was “right” in doing so.   It’s because I was brainwashed from a young age that I had to be a team player.  I had to be one of the guys looking out for the best interests of the job and not be selfish.   Not be greedy.  Not want too much for myself.  But everything I did in my jobs was things that if implemented would have meant thousands to millions of dollars of increased profits to the companies I was working for.

I was living my life basically as an unpaid consultant for everyone I worked for.  The problem was they never asked for my awesome views so I couldn’t tell them.

This was ME living up to MY views of THEIR potential.       Where was mine?   I thought it was a decent job in each one most of the time.  I got money for fast food, restaurants out, movies, decent clothes, cell phones, gas for the car and always had enough money to make it EXACTLY 30 DAYS!

Now in contrast my bosses were living up to their potential.  They were being rewarded to keep costs low.   To cut corners even if it meant waiting for the customers to ask for a credit for a cable outage instead of automatically giving one if we knew they were cutting lines that day.    They knew that at times raising the prices instead of lowering meant a better bottom line.    THEY LIVED UP TO THEIR POTENTIAL.     They knew that some customers couldn’t afford all our services.  But they also knew those that could fit a certain demographic.   A class of people that were studied in countless ways and followed that formula.

What did they also study?  Employees.  They also knew just how much crap they could give an employee before they break.  Countless studies and employee reviews were proof of this.  So while I thought this was my chance to walk in and give my 2 cents in my effort to ensure they live up to their potential I was already proving my own lack of potential.  And even worse, I was living proof that they already knew theirs by every thought I had, every judgement I made and every suggestion I made.

SO HOW DO I GET OVER “RICH MEANS GREED” IN TRYING TO REACH MY POTENTIAL?

First, you do just that.  Get the hell over it. Whatever you gotta do.  Realize that there’s more to finding your potential than just thinking some school is going to give it to you on a piece of paper in a frame.  Your potential involves alot of factors that most of us never even could comprehend ever play into things.

As I write this i think of a my friend Scott who helped me learn some of my own potential.   He’s a man who despite having been a photographer is one hell of a handy man. I wouldn’t know where to start ripping apart a kitchen or rebuilding one.  But my potential increased when he showed me at every turn the deep awareness of plumbing, carpentry, measuring, and even where to take the debris after a total demolition.   Frankly, I wouldn’t have known where to start.  But this was proof that you really can’t start something until you have a good faith in yourself that you can finish it.  This same man also went on to produce political and financial awareness films.  Again, something I was interested but did I do that, no.  Scott truly has taken more steps than most people I know to not only learn his potential but always have it available and apply it when the times called for it.  Everything from feature film production to painting baseboards outside before they’re installed requires our understanding of that potential.

CAN I TURN MY BAD JOB EXPERIENCES INTO A GOOD EXPERIENCE?

Frankly yes.  You’ve had a few jobs and most of them you hated.  But you know what?  You proved your potential to get jobs.  Now you’ve become disillusioned in them right?  You’re feeling the jobs are ultimately going to be as “Good” as the last job?  The bosses are all going to be alike and now that we’re older we’re going to work for younger tyrants who don’t respect us.   Know what?  this is your “potential” proving it’s ability to recognize patterns.    Now it’s time to want the same things the bosses want which is a stable bottom line.

SO I SHOULD WANT MONEY INSTEAD OF JOBS?

YES!! Here’s why.  All the jobs you’ve worked for had a plan that says each year, in order to stay competitive they need 10% growth.  This gives money for the investors and keeps them from falling behind the pack by such great distances.   So why aren’t you doing that for yourself?  Why aren’t YOU looking at the beginning and end of the year and saying you want more next year?   According to current trends you’re going to need more money each year. Do any of us ever do that?   Why not???

Most of us sit back and say the job should give us a raise every year to match the cost of living.   Again because of the “reward” style philosophies we’ve been taught in a church like society we sit back and think the company determines our increase each year.  But the company is focused on THEIR increase.  So how do you get yours before you go broke?   You WANT it into action.

We’ve made the mistake all this time that the job should stop looking out for themselves and look out for us.  When in reality WE are not even looking after ourselves.  That’s our best chance at not reaching our potential is expecting someone else to reach ours for us.

If you’ve ever heard of “The Law Of Attraction” it states that things we put out to the universe are given to us.   Think on love and love will happen.  But if you work for a company where your unsolicited consulting is constantly negative we send to the universe negative energies and receive them in return.  But you can change this.

Greed is always associated with most people’s thoughts on money.  AND Greed is something we’ve always associated with our bosses.  No one wants to be greedy right?   Well, we think that.  So we try not to do anything that causes us to even resemble those we once perceived as greedy.   What happens?   We don’t want to start our own business, that’s greedy.  We don’t want to run the risk of having a customer dispute our charges, that’s greedy.  We don’t want to risk a small claims law suit because we charged what we thought was fair and the client failed to do his part and sues us.   That’s probably greedy on our part if we’re expecting the client to do what they should too right?

You can’t reach your potential without being able to see your income potential can only be met if you actually do things you once thought was based in greed.   Seeking 10% more each year to stay competitive.  Invoicing a customer with a net 30 demand.  Being willing to call an attorney to get money owed to you if you did work on credit.  Perhaps once you thought calling someone that owed money was greedy.   How many of us have given money to friends and feel like asking for it back is wrong?   How many of us would give money owed if we knew our friends needed it back?   Most of us would do what we could to pay back a friend if they were in a time of need.  Do you have the courage to fire an employee for breaking rules?  Do you have the guts to lay off an employee?  Because when times are lean you may have to do that.   But you can be proud of yourself you were able to give them work when you could.

In order to reach your potential you must get over the “I don’t want to be greedy” attitude because it’s this attitude that caused you to work for others all these years.   The fear of not knowing what to do on the end of the job has caused most of us, even myself difficulty with starting the job.

WE ARE ALL INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS

Whether you work on a 1099 or a w2 as an employee, you’re independent.  You get paid for the job you do and when the job they ask for.   If a company wants consultants they’ll hire someone.  If you want to be a consultant start a consulting firm.   Seriously, get paid for whatever you do but by all means get paid.   You have potential that you never even dreamed of.

You don’t represent the company.   That’s the biggest lie they ever told you.  At all times you represent your own independent business you offer those who hire you.  At times that may require you to SAY you represent them.  But you don’t.  You represent yourself.   If you refuse to, no one else will and that’s the truth.

WHEN DO I START WANTING MONEY

Start wanting money NOW.   Remember you wanted jobs and the universe gave them to you.   Start wanting money and watch what happens.  Then start wanting enough money to live on.   As you see this principal play out and you begin to realize how, like me, you too are just finding your real potential you’ll see a change.  A change in how you feel about money.  How you feel about yourself.   How you feel about the blessings you can give others when you’re actually having enough to share.

Everything you do can be profitable.    Even if just one person buys it.  I should know. I made a home made invention and had only one close friend pay $15 bucks for it.   It was at a time I needed $15 so it worked out.

See yourself not as someone in need of money, but someone with the potential of generating money.

For many of you this is the greatest chance of your life to see the mistakes we made and realize our success isn’t always meant to come from the job market. And our future isn’t always meant to be from that one job we get.

Your future comes from a combination of two things.  First knowing your real potential and not being afraid of changing to become that person.  Second realizing the universe has given you everything you’ve asked for so far.   Including all those “crappy” jobs.  Changing is only half the battle.   You have to want the rewards of your true potential to find success.  That’s when you know you earned everything you have.