Note: This is the last installment to the 4-part series on the Truly Rich Club Wealth Conference 2019. Here are the links to the first 3 parts of the series:
- Part 1 – Bo Sanchez’ How to Increase Your Psychological Wallet
- Part 2 – Dean Pax Lapid’s Building Your House of Entrepreneur
- Part 3 – Edward Lee’s How Your Psychological Trauma Dictate Your Stocks Investing Decisions
Rex Mendoza’s How To Become Rich While Being An Employee
The last speaker was Rex Mendoza. He made his money in the insurance industry and later moved on to other industries. He talked about becoming rich while being an employee.
Are there employees who are rich? Yes, definitely.
While I agree with this, I certainly had reservations simply because I know for most of employees they cannot imagine becoming rich. I’ve worked in the corporate world for 9 years. I know that there’s a limit to the scalability of your income when you are an employee.
You will have to build a different skillset if you want to climb up the corporate ladder. You have to learn to play the game of office politics and all. You have to learn how to work with a team and become a leader. You have to sacrifice your time for a lot of family occassions. You go through a lot of stress, but the most critical is in having little control on how you want your career to go. Often, you are left with the option to quit your job or stay and suck up even if you don’t like it.
But one thing that struck me about what Rex Mendoza talked was about the MINDSET shift that needs to happen if you ever want to become rich as an employee. He asked the critical question that you need to ask yourself, if you are working as an employee right now. The question is…
…are you getting paid for your TIME?
or are you getting paid for the RESULTS you create?
That’s one of the most classic distinction of an entrepreneur from those working only as an employee. You see, most people are content getting paid on their time. You wake up in the morning. You go to the office. Sit on your desk. Work your way until the office hour ends. You brave the rush hour traffic going back home. And tomorrow, you repeat the same routine again. In return, the company pays you based on how many hours you put in. Nothing more, nothing less.
In the beginning this is all fine and good, until you realize that it is never going to be enough for the long term. We only have 24 hours in a day. So if you are paid based on your hours, your income will always be capped to a certain level no matter what the rate you are getting paid for is.
Until you decide to break this chain where your income is dependent on how much time you have, you will always run out of money and run out of time.
What Rex Mendoza was trying to emphasize was that even if you are working as an employee, it doesn’t prevent you from thinking like an ENTREPRENEUR. Thinking like an entrepreneur allows you to see the bigger picture. It allows you to see that the only limits to your income potential is your own imagination and willingness to be responsible for RESULTS that you create.
But getting paid for RESULTS is HARDER. Why? Because you are now accountable for both the good and bad. That’s why CEO’s are paid more. Not because they work longer hours but because they take responsibility of getting the results for their companies.
If you’re the CEO and you increase your company’s income by P1 Billion. Would giving you an additional monthly income of P1M be justified? Maybe for some it is too high. But If I am the owner of the company, that is cheap! I’d even double that if you can double the company’s income even more. I’ll gladly pay you every cent if you can make that happen.
You see, without you, the CEO, making the right decisions, I would lose the P1Billion in earnings. I would rather pay you P1M/month to get P1Billion income, than not pay you P1M/month and lose the P1Billion.
This happens on a smaller scale in many small businesses. Even the little details like having to hire a household help can create a big impact into your business results.
Do you pay your household help the pay she deserves? Or do you decide to just do it on your own to save? You think you are saving P7K a month by doing it yourself, but if you have the ability to earn P100K in a month, you are actually losing money. You let “saving” P7K rob you off earning the P100K that you would have earned.
Looking at the numbers it’s easy to brush it as common sense. But if I learned anything about money in my years of teaching personal finance to my business associates, it is that money is 80% psychological and 20% technical. When it comes to money, our decisions are often dictated by our emotions rather than our technical know how. This is precisely the reason why I could not agree more on what Mr Edward Lee said in our last article about psychological traumas.
You see it is easy to see the numbers work out. But in reality, we all have our own doubts if we really can make it happen.
What if you fail? What if you can’t earn more than P7K a month?
What if your household help doesn’t do her job well just like how you can do it?
Do you feel the need to be secure? Are you afraid to let go of your fears?
For some people, it is easier said than done. But for the successful people that I know, this is an easy decision to make.
If you are not prepared to take responsibility for the RESULTS, whether it will be good or bad, then you will feel stuck in the moment of indecision. Most people would rather stay where they are, rather than risk the possibility of becoming successful. They are too fearful of what others might say about them. Creating and taking responsibility for your RESULTS, inspite of what others might say takes a little more than numbers. It takes boldness, courage, and willingness to fail.
Are there employees who become successful? Of course, there are.
But usually, these are people who have taken responsibility not only of their own results, but the results of the people they lead. They rise to leadership positions. They have specific skills they were able to develop.
According to Mr. Rex Mendoza, here are the 3 skills you need to develop if you want to become rich as an employee:
- Harness the talent of your people
- Extract the experience of the people you lead
- Steer the whole team in a single direction
As you develop yourself, it is critical to develop your INFLUENCE or POWER in order to better lead your group. When you do this, your team will have the resources to do their best and overcome obstacles. The 3 levels of influence are: 1) Authority, 2) Expertise, and 3) Relationships. You can leverage all these 3 to enhance your ability to lead your team effectively.
At the end of it all, the buck stops with you as the LEADER. You can delegate responsibility, but you can never delegate ACCOUNTABILITY. You are accountable for the RESULTS no matter what.
In a recent video about the state of STARTUPs in the Philippines, it came to my attention that one of the reasons why our country lags compared to other countries in the region like Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, etc. is the lacking entrepreneurial culture in the Philippines. Most people still see themselves as that of an employee. Very few have the courage to venture out on their own, and become entrepreneurs. Yes, there’s the lack of government support, etc. but culturally we are a nation of people who simply wants to earn and willing to work. We understand the value of hardwork. We hardly complain. We are very resilient.
Perhaps in the future, this will change. We have a lot of problems in our country that need solving. However, this might takes some time. As the change is not a simple case of simply flooding the country with more money, but a shift in CULTURE and MINDSET. Succeeding as an employee requires a different skillset than that of an entrepreneur. In the end though, what matters is that you are making a difference in the world.
Becoming rich is not the end goal, it’s only a means to an end. What matters will be what you did with what you have. Did you bless the world with your work? Did your riches blessed more people? Did your story inspire people to make this world a better place? Did you fulfill your divine purpose in this world? Because in the end THIS is what matters. We are all the same after all, both rich and poor, employee or entrepreneur. As they say, “at the end of the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box.”
P.S. I hope you enjoyed this 4-part series we had about the first ever Truly Rich Club Wealth Conference. If you want to get updated on the next events, get wealth strategies, inspirational talks and stocks investment guides, and more, you can join the Truly Rich Club. Simply CLICK HERE to join.
P.P.S. Recently, I was on a 3-day business trip to Tacloban City, the home of the happiest and most resilient people. My day was full-packed with meetings, trainings and coaching on personal finance, building a sustainable business, and more. On the side, I was able to visit the San Juanico bridge, the longest bridge in the Philippines (and 2nd most in Asia?), MacArthur’s famous “I shall return” landing, Sto Nino Shrine, the former president’s grand mansion in Leyte, and more. The food was delicious. The people are very warm and welcoming. I super enjoyed my stay. CLICK HERE to watch my 32nd youtube video to see a glimpse of what I do. If you have not done so, I encourage you to watch the other videos on my channel as well, talking about different topics as millionaire mindset and habits. Please subscribe to my YOUTUBE channel as well while you are at it. Thank you in advance. 🙂
P.P.S. I’m curious to know your story. Feel free to hit reply and message me. I read ALL of your emails to me and respond to each one of them personally. Who knows? I might even feature you here in this blog in the future.