Who Will Cry When You Die\?: Life Lessons From The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari pdfdrive com

65.
Increase Your Value
In the new economy you now find yourself in, you will be compensated not by
how hard you work but by how much value you add to the world around you.
Think about it. If you are currently being paid twenty dollars an hour, this money
is being given to you not simply because you showed up at your desk for those
sixty minutes but because you have added twenty dollars’ worth of perceived
value during those sixty minutes. So, the monetary reward you receive is
determined not by how long you work but by how much value you add.
This is why a brain surgeon is paid so much more than a McDonald’s
employee. Is the brain surgeon a better person? Not necessarily. Is the brain
surgeon a harder worker? Probably not. Is the brain surgeon smarter? Who
knows? But one thing is certain: the brain surgeon has accumulated far more
specialized knowledge and specific know-how than the McDonald’s employee.
There are far fewer people who can do what the brain surgeon does and, as a
result, the brain surgeon is perceived as far more valuable to the marketplace.
This is why the brain surgeon is paid over ten times more than the person who
flips burgers. Money simply becomes a symbol for how much value each person
has added to the world at large.
So to be paid more money in your work, you must add more value to the
world. And the best way to begin adding value to the world is to start becoming
a more valuable person. Acquire skills no one else has. Read books no one else
is reading. Think thoughts no one else is thinking. Or, to put it another way, you
cannot have all that you want if you remain the person you are. To get more
from life, you need to be more in life.

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66.
Be a Better Parent
The way you raise your children is the way you raise your future generations.
Since few of us have had formal training in the fine art of parenting, most of us
simply treat our children the way our parents treated us. We know of no other
way to do it.
Although being a parent is a great joy, it is also a privilege that involves
tremendous responsibility. While I would do anything for my two children, that
willingness is not enough. We need to develop the skills of excellent parents. We
cannot just hope that the way we are raising our kids is the right way and pray
that we will be lucky enough that they become thoughtful, caring and wise
adults. We must take the initiative to improve our parenting abilities by
attending seminars, reading books and listening to audiocassettes by the leading
thinkers in this field. Then we must have the courage to keep trying to refine the
ideas we learn in the laboratory of our own lives in order to find the parenting
strategies that best suit our families.
I know your life is busy and there is too much to do in too little time. But
those miraculous years of your sons’ and daughters’ childhoods will never come
again. And if you do not devote the time and effort to becoming the best parent
you know you can be, one day you will deeply regret the lost opportunity. As
one father who attended a seminar I gave in Toronto said, “When my son was
growing up, he constantly asked me to give him piggyback rides. Though I knew
how much he loved them, I was always too busy to play with him. I had reports
to read or meetings to attend or calls to make. Now that he has grown up and left
our home, I have realized one thing: I would give anything in the world to give
that little boy a piggyback ride.”

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