Learners are Earners and Earners are Learners!

Learners are Earners and Earners are Learners and the ones who know the least tend to pay the most. That my friends is a fact!

I want you to be a learner and an earner and not the one always paying the most!

What do I mean?

People who earn a lot of money in general love to learn new things because they understand the importance of constant growth and development and the impact it has on the quality of their life as well as on their income. Just think about the people you know and in particular those who make a lot of money. Do they know more than the average person? If you think about what they do, how good they are at their profession and the level of knowledge they possess within that specific area, I am pretty sure they know more than most and are people of action!

Many of the famous entrepreneurs have accumulated a lot of knowledge, both broadly speaking and specialized knowledge. They tend to combine what they know with what they learn to make progress and to create new opportunities for themselves, their businesses and their families!

If we don’t learn and develop we are going backwards since we are living in a world which is constantly changing. Our decisions (or lack thereof) will impact our lives as we go about our daily lives. Learners are earners and will have a constant advantage in life compared to those who do not continuously learn and grow. Seemingly small choices we make in our lives (taken with limited knowledge) will have a significant impact on our lives. Let me explain what I mean…

Examples of why this is true

I will here give you three simple examples of how and why the fact that learners are earners is true in our daily lives.

1. Buying a new car

When you are looking to buy a new car, you would normally go to a car dealer. Let’s then assume you have the knowledge of the average car buyer (rather limited knowledge) but the sales person of course seems to know a lot. They are showing you all the cool features and buttons of the car and you are really impressed. You might not be able to finance the car (you don’t have the cash to buy it), but that’s not a problem as the sales person arranges a financing solution for you. As he is such a nice guy, he even offers you a free filling of gas, what a great guy!

I would say this is a pretty normal situation for most, right? So why am I using this and what is my point?

It is very likely that the sales person sold you a much more expensive car than you needed and could afford (you didn’t have the cash to pay for it). He probably sold a nicer version of the car with a lot of extra features which you won’t use and won’t be able to recite afterwards if a friend asked you to. You will have to pay off the car monthly for the next five years including a high interest rate on your loan. Since he was such a nice guy, you possibly also bought winter tires, car insurance and a service plan…

So what?!

What do you think would have happened if you had done your research (learned to gain knowledge) before spending 40,000 USD you did not have?

Let me paint you a slightly different picture:

Had you done your research in advance, you would have known what car (brand and model) you wanted and also what equipment you would need (need to have and not nice to have). You would then have done your research online and would have found the best deal within a reasonable distance from where you live.

Once you met the seller, they would know immediately that you knew what you were talking about and would not try cheap sales tricks on you. You on the other hand, would know how to get an even better deal by paying cash (planning and saving in advance), taking the car off their hands right away etc. Most likely they would lower the price, add the winter tires and fill up the tank for you!

Once it was time to service the car, you would do the same research and hand it in to the ones who offered the best price and quality. Some of the simpler things like changing the motor oil you might even do yourself and save that 50-200 USD it would cost. By comparing and knowing the price (and the range between different providers), the seller will have to offer more value at a similar price for you to do a transaction with them!

If you have not read my post on why you should never by a brand new car, I recommend you doing that. The difference between buying a new (40k car) and a second hand car can be a staggering 120,000 USD over ten years and then I’m not even taking any running or maintenance costs into account. I only refer to how you finance the car and the depreciation of it!! The smart buyer has 80,000 USD in his investment account and the not so clever buyer has a car which is worth around 10,000 USD but has costed around 50,000 USD!

This is just to show that we all have large expenditures in our lives as well as reoccurring ones and by gaining more knowledge, we will for sure have more money left in our pockets!

2. Attending an event

Every now and then we are all attending events, parties or similar where we have the opportunity to meet new people. If you go to a party where you don’t know anyone and just walk over to the bar whilst avoiding eye contact and order a triple gin-tonic, what will happen? Well, most likely you will get drunk pretty quickly and if you are “lucky” you might find a companion by the bar who has also had one or two too many to drink.

You potentially chat about the weather and how boring these type of events are, maybe you talk about your everyday problems and so does your new friend. After listening for a while to all the problems your “new friend” seems to have, you stop listening and focus more on the drinking. Your new friend is realizing this and doing the same.

Finally you come to your senses and make your move, get your coat and call a cab because you are too drunk and this event is so boooooring, you should never have come in the first place!

Know anybody like this (or close to this behavior)?

How do you think (or know) an intellectual person will take advantage of an activity like this even if they don’t know a single person? I believe that regardless of how they come in contact with someone, it might even be by the bar (but they will not get wasted), they will find an interesting topic to discuss. By having general as well as specialized knowledge, a learned man or woman can hold an interesting conversation in any environment.

They will often also be good listeners and when they speak others tend to listen as they usually have something interesting and intelligent to say. Often these people tend to find new friends at these kind of events because they never fall short of a topic to discuss. If they don’t know too much about the topic being discussed, they listen and learn as well as asking relevant questions. As you probably recognize, when we have a good listener we can talk forever and really appreciate the attention we are getting.

So what?!

What is the difference between the person who can talk about anything with anyone and still be a good listener and someone who just aims for the booze (or don’t even attend any events or seminars)? I have a pretty clear picture of these two characters and the different types of lives they are living and will be living in the future too.

If you can have conversations with most people and get appreciated by the majority, you will create new friendships and get invited to yet more events and happenings. There is a saying that your network is your net worth. By meeting new people, learning new things and expanding your social reach, you will get so many more opportunities than if you are sitting in your softies at home watching a reality TV-show…

The more knowledgeable people we spend time with, the more we learn. The more we learn, the more opportunities will come knocking on our doors.

If you can talk to anyone about anything, you can also choose what conversation you want to have and with whom. If you need to get in contact with someone within a certain company or business and you know you have something in common to talk about, the approach and the discussion will flow so much smoother.

So use this knowledge to your advantage to move in the direction you want to go in your life.

3. Climbing the ladder

We are all habitual creatures and many of us live our daily lives more or less the exact way we did the previous day, week, month, year and maybe even decade. There are studies showing that the majority of our thoughts are also old and repetitive thoughts (pretty sad, I know..).

Maybe this is what most of your days look like: Phone alarm! Snooze (x times), check your phone, answer messages, stumble into the shower, check your phone, have some breakfast and then leave for work. You then arrive at work with a coffee in your hand but without knowing how you got there (though you managed to read some social media on your way). This is called a habit. You have done the same thing so many times that your body knows what to do without you even thinking about it!

Well at work, you are stressed all day but yet you don’t seem to accomplish all that much. When it’s time to leave work, you realize you have done just about the same amount of work you do on a “normal day” (are they not all normal days…?). So even if you might be bored, days fly by on routine and most things have become so habitual they just seem to happen.

In your head and to your friends you might complain about having a job that is paying you just enough not to quit whilst at the same time you do just enough work not to get fired!

If you know someone like this, I would guess they are not that happy, cheerful nor energetic when they get home after work (complaining most likely continues). Maybe they grab a take-away on their way home and then jump into their softies to watch another one of these brilliant TV shows (Love Island is it?).

Just think about what if……

You just did a bit more than what you were asked to do, every day at work?
You offered to help your colleagues more frequently?
You decided to learn new skills that would be applicable to work and your own growth?
You always added more value than what people expected from you?

What do you think the above would do for you?

I am pretty sure that if you apply the above rules and you decide to become a learner, advancement at work will come faster than you could have imagined. Besides from that, your whole personality will change and you will feel more energized and happy to go to work every day! People who live and behave like this have just created different habits compared to most. They act like sponges and want to know more, they want to understand the business they are in and they want to apply that knowledge and so should you!

By demonstrating your ability to learn and take action, there is no way you won’t be noticed. If you at the same time do it in a friendly and helpful manner (not just trying to suck up to your boss), most people will love you for it. Don’t we all have someone we know, who knows a lot and is always there to help at work even though it’s not their job to do so? Or the ones who always seem to know more about the business than they should based on their “job description”. I am sure you do but they normally won’t stick around for very long. These people are constantly making career progress and if you don’t join them for the ride, they might soon leave you far behind.

I urge you to make sure you develop these kind of super skills so that you will always be in demand in the workplace. The easiest ones to acquire and train are creativity and interpersonal skills as these are skills we can all work on all day and every day, regardless of where we are and what we do. If you manage to acquire these and become one of a kind, there is no way you will ever be out of work and most likely you will be in such a high demand that you can set your price and not the other way around! There will be another longer post on super skills and how to nurture them as they will become even more crucial in an ever-changing environment.

Back to the fact that Learners are Earners and Earners are Learners…

They are not only making more money than the average person, they are also using their knowledge and their money much wiser. By applying their knowledge, they will have an advantage over the average person in most situations in life and they will pay less for almost everything that they buy! What do you think they do with the rest of the money?

They of course make that money work for them to make them even more money! To do this, they know they need to understand and use the language of money which of course they do! They understand this and they love to grow and learn because they know that’s how one can live a fulfilled life. Living a life in abundance, just knowing you always have money and the ability to learn new things is an amazing foundation for a long interesting and successful life.

Never having to worry about money, always having enough, always being able to buy what they want (they might choose not to buy certain things but that’s a completely different matter compared to not being able to do it) is the way we should all live.

This is not a funny joke. Just look at anyone who is successful, they are so because they apply their knowledge whilst continuing to learn and develop their skills. That is why they are so successful. These are the people who seem to “get all the opportunities or being lucky all the time”. In my world, they are constantly making their own luck by learning and being open to new opportunities (wearing the right glasses). Would you not want to work or go into business with someone who is successful, knowledgeable, takes action and knows how to handle money?

I for sure would! So do you now start to see why Learners are Earners and Earners are Learners? Living that kind of life happens just like everything else in life, because we make a bunch of choices. I will make mine and you will make yours. But I promise that if you become a constant learner, refiner and action taker, your life will never be the same again!

Actions to take:

Read and apply everything on our site but if that feels like a stretch, have a look at the following posts…

– Jakob