Whenever you punch names like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs,
Jack Ma, Serena Williams, Roman Abramovic, Strive Masiyiwa and Patrice Motsepe
or other such influential persons; you will notice on their profile there is an
amount shown as "Net Worth" denoted mostly in United States dollars.
Have you ever wondered what this means? Well this is what the person owns in
monetary value i.e. their assets (what they own) less their liabilities (what
they owe). Unfortunately if you Google yourself like me, chances are you will
not see any net worth against your name. This is because the perception is you
don't have much to your name so trying to count or estimate it is worthless. To
put it bluntly, you are not worth enough to deserve checking. The key to
improve your life is to actively invest in your net worth. Most people don't
know how to increase their net worth; here are a few ways to do this.
Get Quality Education
For most people life is just about getting an education,
so long they have a degree, they should be fine. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Quality of education is determined by the forces of supply and
demand. If you are doing a degree or diploma programme for which there are
another many people, you are likely to face tough competition in the market. The
supply of such a degree far exceeds the demand. So no matter which prestigious
university you went to, you have a certificate which is degraded and puts you
in a position of weakness when negotiating with potential employers. This is
the first determinant of your net worth coming from school. You will accumulate
income/wealth at a slower pace than those who have done scarcer degree
programmes. However if your goal is to start out on your own the same degree
can exponentially increase your net worth.
Continuously Seek Knowledge
It is not enough to have quality education; often it is
the beginning of access to acquire wealth. Knowledge is what will move you to
the next level. When you combine the degree with knowledge you qualify to be
called an experienced person. However knowledge expires and needs to
continually be refined and refreshed. The people who studied computer science
in 1980 would be useless in 2016 without continued knowledge acquisition. Those
who rest on their laurels present a danger to their net worth. Without knowledge
acquisition you can be rendered obsolete in the world of skills. I have seen
people who did some course then rose within an organisation to a senior or
managerial position and never bothered to get more relevant knowledge. Then by
some event left the job and has been unemployed ever since that time. Such
people would have been left in the history and find a market asking a lot from
them before they can be considered. In my life I have made it a goal to learn
something new every year which can put me ahead of my peers.
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| Count Your Worth |
Count it, Measure it
In life you need to have a balance sheet of yourself. There
are many people who are going around looking great to the eye of the beholder yet
are a moment away from complete ruin. Most people even professional do not measure
their net worth. You need to sit down and write your assets e.g. money saved in
fixed deposits, shares, bonds, furniture, jewellery, educational certificates
and other personal items then on another page write your liabilities e.g. your
vehicle remaining debt, bond balance, credit card balance, student loans. Next
put a monetary value to eat item, add all the assets and subtract the
liabilities. What remains is your net worth and for most people this will be a
negative value which is not a crisis. However after a year there should be an
improvement when you are doing things right or the negative will increase if
you are doing worse off. People often think they have a good asset in a motor
vehicle or a house. However always measure what you can sell the vehicle for
today against what you owe the bank for financing. In most cases what you can
sell it for is less than what you owe to the bank. The same applies to houses;
people have the belief that property is a safe investment. But the hard truth
is property values can come down quickly. A posh suburb will decrease in value
if next to it an informal settlement is built. So it is possible to be paying a
bond for a property that has halved in value in a short time.
Make a Decision About It
After you have measured your net worth; you have an idea
of where you are. The person who is increasing their net worth can afford to
relax because they are doing great. However if it is stagnant or decreasing
then you know it’s a ticking time bomb, either you run away from it or try to
diffuse it. In this case running away is not an option. Some people have
changed their careers after seeing worrying figures on their net worth. Others sold
their cars and started using public transport while some decided to indulge in
some side income generating project. Whatever you do about your net worth, make
sure it has a positive impact in the long run. I had a revision of my net worth
position in 2014 and prayed to God for guidance. From then I wrote down what I
want my net worth to be and realised the figure goes up to some millions of
dollars. I then saw that working an 8-5 job would not get me to that
destination. I did not loathe my job or quit it but I made up my mind to be at
least 5 times more productive. This ensured I could finish my job assignments
within 3 hours of my working day. The balance of the time I invested it in
things that can increase my net worth e.g. I started learning how to code; I registered
a business since it is the most feasible thing to grow my net worth to millions,
cut down my sleep and leisure activities & I started writing product blue
prints for internet and mobile applications. It’s been a while since I made a
decision about it and so far I am happy with the input and output I am
realising. I am on the verge of opening a consulting business to help those who
want to be in business but are unable to connect all the dots.
So What Will You Do?
After reading this article, you might feel challenged,
defeated or indifferent. But those who will pause, analyse and make a
determination will come out better. There are smart people out there and from my
own experience, the doors of successful people are always open to those who
wish to follow in their footsteps. I have asked free time from some very influential
people & they were happy to hear what I had to say and digest it. One such
man was a former Head of South African Police Service IT division; he was a man
who has been all over the world representing South Africa. After my
presentation he was impressed and encouraged me to continue working. For me it
was an endorsement that I was not just wishing upon some blue prints, I was
wishing upon valuable things. He gave me the belief and boldness to knock on
bigger doors and where I am now my dreams do not seem as crazy as they did in
2013. So choose to act while it is still today; it is never too late even at
the age of 70 because my peers often tell me ah Runya you are still younger at
34, I am 42 and cannot do much. I quickly distance myself from such people
because they are going nowhere, sitting in the park of life watching others
move while they say “what will be, will be”. Choose to carry your cross and
continue on the journey, don’t stop until you can Google yourself and Wikipedia
says “so and so, Net Worth $X billions or millions because it is possible.
