Transcription
[Music] bring you one of the greatest secrets in life. For this next year, you are worth what you are valued. So if you ain't value much to a job, they pay you less. How do you get more pay? You got to increase your value to the company. Ain't no mystery to life. How do you increase your value to a company? By first of all, you do it by becoming unique. How to become unique? Easy. By becoming significant. How to become significant? Easy. By becoming rare. That's the basic principle.
Okay, I got his invitation. I was reading this this invitation yesterday. Invitation comes all the way from Australia. The guy says, "Look, we want to send you two first-class tickets to Australia. We want you to speak to a conference called The Influence Conference. They said our focus this year is on leadership, and you are the first person to be thought of when we thought of leadership." I told my secretary, "Find out where that man is from." And they tracked me down in a little island seven miles wide. One first-class ticket cost eight thousand dollars. They sent him two. Then they said, "How much you want us to pay you?" Wow, what a question. How many of you would like that question asked this next week?
Listen to me. When you become rare, they come to find you. That's why you dig for diamonds. That's why you dig for oil. That's why you dig for silver. That's why you go diving for pearls. Why? When you are rare, they gotta come and find you. And then they put heavy price on you.
What are you going to do with what you have? Here's the big challenge of life. You can have more than you've got because you can become more than you are. That's the challenge. And of course, the other side of the coin reads, "Unless you change how you are, you'll always have what you got." Are you rare, or you just wanted to the crew?
How do you become rare? Write this one down. Very important. You become rare by refining your gift. That means you work it and you work it and you work it and you work it until it becomes so refined, it becomes rare. It becomes brighter than all the others. See, if everybody's selling shoes, you got to find a way to sell a kind of shoe that no one else sells. They're going in the shoe business. Don't you sell shoes. Anybody selling shoes? Sell shoes only for infants. Not your rest. See, they'll find you. You're gonna go into restaurant business. Don't just sell Bahamian food. Everybody trying to sell vegan food. You gotta find a certain type. You want to do something that is so unique that they'll find you. You know McDonald's is the only Big Mac restaurant. Now, everybody sells fries. Everybody sells chicken McNuggets, all them other things. But if you want a Big Mac, you got to bypass everybody and go to McDonald's. Now, McDonald's in school. Once you come for a Big Mac, they say, "You might still try the fries. Throw the nuggets in and throw the pie in." Boy, everybody's selling pie. Everybody selling nuggets. But not everybody's selling Big Macs. You gotta find your rare uniqueness.
[Music] People have asked me for the last 24 years, "How do you develop an above-average income?" And the answer is, become an above-average person. Probably one of the most frustrating experiences in life is looking for an above-average job with above-average pay without becoming an above-average person. It's called frustration. Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job. You know what's wrong with us? Everybody named Jack or Jacqueline. Come on, save it. Me, Jack of all trades and mastering nothing. You gotta master something. Write this down, please. You will refine what you invest in. That means you want to develop and refine your gift. You got to spend more money on books related to your gift and start reading them. Shut the TV off and refine your gift. You got to now change your friends and start keeping coming with people who can help refine your gift. Invest in friends. Then you gotta change your associations and join ones that can help refine your gift. You gotta invest in your gift. For things to change for you, you've got to change. You spent all day watching live TV, airman, and you're wondering why you broke and no one looking for you. Annually getting paid 200 bucks a month because you are not rare. The problem is not mine. Problem is either yourself or where you are. If you think those systems are the problem, you are the problem. Life doesn't owe you anything. Never complain. And here's a good question to ask. We are all buying somebody's plan. The question is, who's got you talked into doing what you're doing? Who's got you talked into your present plan? See, ten years from now, you will surely arrive. The question is, where? You know I sent me to tell you, he's tired of you being mediocre. He tired of you just getting paid a salary. He wants them to look and seek you out. He wants them to beg you to stay. When you decline to resign, he wants to say, "Please don't resign. We'll double your pay." Matter of fact, test it. Yeah, I got you. I want to see how rare you are. Resign on Tuesday. See what they say. Now, if they say, "Thank God she's going," are you in trouble? That means you ain't valuable no more. You never was. You're a nuisance.
Write this down. Last one down, please. You become [Music] valuable when you specialize. Simple, but people still ain't got it. In time, you gotta go by yourself. Take your own evening courses. Take your own online courses. You gotta go for it. Why? Don't worry for them folks who laughing at you. You are refining yourself so you won't be a nurse. You got a thousand of them. So you're gonna get paid much. So specialize in nursing. An area. Specialized nursing in bone cancer. Oh, all of a sudden now, your value going up. [Music] Because you don't find noises specializing in bone cancer. Hey, I found out what success is. Success is doing what the failures won't do. The real question. The real question is, how much do you want? If you want nothing, you will get nothing. And if you want to change the world with it, change the world by just participating and making a better product or service. You're changing the world anyway. You're raising living standards. You're doing your part in the economy. You won't be an accountant. Anybody's accountant. That's why all accountants broke, working for somebody else. You're gonna be an accountant. Refine that area and become an accountant that is international accountancy, built on certain principles for for globalization. Do something unique. Do something otherwise, you will not become valued.
Write this down, please. What lies within you, it's greater than what lies ahead of you. You'll see the greatness is what you got to bring into value. And you possess the hidden value of your life right now. It's trapped in you. I will not tell you what I am worth an hour. I will not because you are a Bahamian and you'll be jealous of me. But my value came from focus. Everybody say focus. I refined myself. I got, you know, this past year, I read 22 books on leadership. How many of you read last year? And so they called for me and pay me to come. Why? I refined my gift. While you watching LMN, it's causing you to lose value. You should be reading. While you're watching that stuff, spending time on the blocks, listening to music. You better refine your gift, young man. If you wish to be successful, study success. If you wish to be happy, study happiness. If you wish to be wealthy, study wealth. Don't leave it to chance. Make it a study. Some people just go through the day with their fingers crossed. See, that won't do it. You've got to study the things that can change your economic, social, spiritual, personal life. Jesus, the master teacher, said, "Don't just be listeners, be doers." The world admires the doers. Whatever it takes to get you to try harder. Read more. Set your goals and go for it. See, you don't want to wind up at the end of your life and discover that you've lived only one tenth of it. Promise yourself you will know. [Music]