The most important lesson

The most important lesson of your career: Money is infinite. Time is not.

You’ll always be able to earn more cash. Sometimes it’ll be easy, other times not so much. But, the bottom line is if you have something to offer that’s valuable to at least one person out there (and there’ll always be someone), you have a way to get money. Politics aside, on a global scale, “money” is nothing more than stored value whether it’s fiat like USD, CAD, EUR, or crypto like BTC or ETH. And, because we always have at least one thing that someone else needs, we thus always have a way to farm and collect that value.

But you’ll never be able to do the same with time. Unless mankind finds a way to break into and navigate the 4th dimension (or 5th depending on your paradigm), when a minute passes, it’s gone. Done. Poof. Off into the ether.

This overarching truth is arguably what separates those that just live from those who thrive. If your answer to life’s problems is to throw more time at it, you’ll live. If instead it’s to maximize what you get out of each minute, you’ll thrive.

Whether you’re a company trying to achieve a sustainable growth and scale, a professional putting in the work towards a promotion or raise, or even someone looking to land their dream job, if your bottom-line path from A to B is “spend more time,” you’ll eventually reach B, sure, but it comes at the most expensive cost imaginable: time you’ll never get back.

If you’re working through a problem (or situation) and it’s starting to take a little longer than it “should,” take a step back and ask yourself if the effort you’re putting into it is really worth the reward at the end. In simple terms, does the attention you put into it yield a positive ROI (return on investment)? If not, maybe it’s time you ask for help. Grab a consult. Ask a coach. Seek out a mentor.

“But that makes me look bad/weak/incapable!”

No, it doesn’t. A little lesson from product management: your customers don’t care how you solved their problem, just that their problem was solved at all.

And you know who really, really doesn’t care? Time.

Money is infinite. Time is not. If you’re feeling stuck, ask someone for help because time is going to move forward with or without you.