How to Get Paid Far More than You Are Worth!

Chapter 1

Do What You Love and Get Paid Ten Times More for It!

One of my favorite consulting stories goes back to a time when I was in Houston, helping a financial-services sales team to improve their training process.

One fellow was really struggling. He seemed to be doing everything reasonably well, but his results were a big pile of nothing.

The rep’s inability to rack up any sales went on for about ten months, from January to November. Not only was it humiliating for him to watch others with less experience succeeding faster, but it was costly, because he was on a straight commission pay plan: he earned money only when he brought in business. No business meant that no money, zilch, nada, was earned.

Suddenly, one day in early November, his ship came in. A Japanese bank made a major investment in one of the seller’s bond funds, and this hapless fellow wrote his first order. And that first sale brought him a $1 million commission.

This event raises the all-important question: was that rep paid an equitable amount? Was he underpaid, justly paid, or overpaid? Was he paid less than his worth, equally to his worth, or more than his worth?

From the rep’s point of view, he earned every penny of the million bucks. After all, he agreed to take a job where the pay was completely contingent on sales, and it amounted to zero for the better part of a calendar year. He gambled and he won.

You know the expression: boats are usually safe in a harbor, but that’s not why they’re built. They prove their seaworthiness in choppy currents, storms, and battering conditions. Likewise, if you want to catch the bigger fish, you have to take one of these vessels far from shore, and there’s no guarantee you’ll catch one. Indeed there’s no assurance you’ll even come back in one piece.

This sudden Houston millionaire was at sea for a long time before he got a bite. He paid an uncertainty premium, investing in a job, a company, and products that might not have paid off. He could have hung around for another ten months, earning nothing. But he had a chance to get rich, and the opportunity penciled out. There were big dollars to be made, providing he applied himself and contacted prospects that could purchase big and were good for the money. If these things lined up, he had a shot.

You’ve heard that old quote from bank robber Willie Sutton. When asked why he robbed banks, he said, Because that’s where the money is.

If you want to be paid what you’re worth, and especially far more than that, you’ll need to go where the money is.

Can you work at McDonald’s and discover gold?

Yes and no. If your focus is only on getting by, earning the wages they pay to new burger and fry flippers, then the answer is no.

However, many McDonald’s franchisees came from the rank and file. They rose in the ranks to management and then arranged to get financing. Many multimillionaires have been made from McDonald’s franchisees.

If you go back far enough, you’ll see that Ray Kroc, the founder of the McDonald’s empire, gave his loyal secretary stock that made her a multimillionaire. She was working with Kroc in his start-up phase. She got in early and stayed for the long haul.

This story is being repeated in Silicon Valley, Silicon Beach, and elsewhere every day. Money is everywhere. There’s no shortage of it, except perhaps in your pocket or bank account. You need to see that as a temporary condition. You may have been born poor, but you don’t have to stay that way.

It has been said that the biggest bankrupt in the world is the person who has lost enthusiasm. By this measure, if you are enthusiastic, you are already rich. It may take a while to financially cash in, but you will.

Dr. Srully Blotnick did some fascinating research. He studied a group of a few hundred people over twenty years. Some got rich and were paid more than they were worth. Others didn’t.

What were traits of those that became wealthy? Were they more educated?

No, they weren’t.

Did they all go into booming sectors like technology or financial services?

No, they did not. They got rich in all walks of life.

The common thread was that the rich folks entered a field that they loved and enthusiastically pursued. They remained interested in it over many years, and they became so good at their tasks that the world noticed their exceptional skill and quality.

Inevitably they outearned their peers from the study group. That extra money was put into investments that they allowed to grow.

Blotnick’s slow but sure method can successfully transport you from rags to riches, although it isn’t as dramatic as earning a million-dollar commission or cashing in stock options.

For these slowpoke millionaires, their net worth came as a surprise to them. They were not focused on money. They kept their eyes on a different ball, one that related to their personal interests. They immersed themselves in their fields, and the money followed.

Perhaps they wanted to become the best at what they did. Or they simply wanted to continually improve, to find better and better ways of doing what they loved.

Masters in most fields are paid more than the average practitioners, that’s for sure. The best university professors—and by best I mean the standouts, those that contribute the most—can earn in the serious six figures.

Preachers with large and supportive congregations can live lavishly, enjoying perks such as spacious and well-appointed offices and homes. They can also be paid serious salaries and receive generous retirement plans.

If you are especially competent, you will succeed, and wealth will find you.

But most of us are interested in taking a faster flight to the promised land of prosperity. We want shortcuts, fast tracks.

Do they exist?

They do. Mostly you’ll find the portal to being paid a superior amount is marked with the word negotiation.

Generally, in your career, you won’t earn what you’re worth. You’ll earn what you NEGIOTIATE.

When most people think of negotiation, they imagine a bargaining table or an interviewing room. At some point after we say hello but before we leave, negotiation takes place.

But really negotiation begins long before the first offer is floated. It begins before the interview starts, and even a long time prior to when we were thinking of applying for a particular job.

Negotiation begins between our two ears, in our minds, when we formulate an intention to become someone or to get something.

When I was growing up, I was treated to a never-ending car show. My neighborhood was filled with pricey and exotic makes and models. A few blocks away, you could see a Lincoln, a Cadillac, a Mercedes, a Ferrari, and a Rolls-Royce idling at the same stoplight.

Thus my idea of a nice car started long before I was ten years old. To me, the epitome of a great car was a dark-red Bentley convertible. The one I wanted had white glove-leather interior with red piping and a tasteful burl dash with matching console. That was the model of my dreams.

That exact car became the benchmark for my aspirations.

Negotiation starts with setting an aspiration level. We aim at something. (More commonly, we aim at nothing in particular. And that’s what we get.)

Back to my Bentley: that was not the first car I purchased, as you might imagine. My first was a very used VW Bug. If I hadn’t been awarded a leadership scholarship in college, I could not have afforded that.

A dozen years later, I bought a convertible. It was a deep red Mercedes sports car, with palomino interior and a wood dash and console. My tastes had changed. I didn’t want to drive a boat anymore!

I didn’t bargain hard for the Mercedes. This was an I deserve it! purchase. It was a reward and the realization of an aspiration that started long before.

The dealer probably thought I was an easy sale. That would be correct. I had sold myself on a similar dream car long before I entered his establishment. No outside persuasion was required. Ready or not, I was buying. All he had to do was hand me the keys.

We walk around with default settings for many aspirations. Some want the same type of home that they grew up in. Parents want for their children the childhoods they had, or perhaps didn’t have.

In some cases, our success settings come from what we think we deserve. If you believe, tacitly or explicitly, unconsciously or consciously, that you have no rightful claim to driving a Bentley or Mercedes convertible, how likely is it that you’ll own one?

On the other hand, if you believe you are destined to drive such a fine machine, then will it be odd when it finds its way into your garage?

Aspiration levels produce elevation levels. You’ll rise to or descend to the level of your expectations.

Right now, I’m at my desk with keyboard in lap. The beautiful waters of the Channel Islands, off the coast of Southern California, ebb and flow a few feet yonder. I see the wavelets, yachts, ducks scooting about, and a blue, billowy sky overhead. How did I end up here?

I used to go out to dinner at the beach, and I’d request a table with an ocean view. Sometimes I’d get it, and sometimes I wouldn’t.

For a hoot, when I was eating at restaurants in Indiana or Ohio, I’d ask the host for a table with an ocean view, please. Usually they’d laugh, and then they’d give me the best table in the house as my reward for lifting their spirits.

But there is something deadly serious about asking for an ocean view every chance you get. That is, if you really want to have an ocean view.

Make it known! Announce your intention! Tell the universe, as often as you can. The universe is listening.

More importantly, you and your subconscious are listening.

You’re setting forth an ambitious aspiration. I want this! you’re telling everyone, including those that cannot directly deliver it.

This, by the way, is not my first ocean view. I’ve had several, and I may have more. I have grown accustomed to having it, and I don’t wish to settle for less! You might say what started as a luxury has now become a necessity, and I’m happy I said that.

This is the way it works with compensation. You’ll earn what you absolutely must have. If you must have only some protection overhead, any bridge will do. That’s fine, if you’re happy with it, but you’re reading this book because you want more. You want more than the average, correct?

I’ll never forget quoting my consulting fee to a cynical fellow a number of years ago.

Why, the average consultant only charges $1,500 a day! he barked.

You know how I replied? Well, I’m not average, and I believe you’re looking for a consultant who is substantially above average, aren’t you?

Let’s be clear with each other: you want to be paid far more than you’re worth, right?

Companies Conspire to Underpay You

The world will tell you, repeatedly, that you’re only worth average pay. This is expressed in many ways.

Commonly, corporations will claim to have done salary surveys. They’ll say the range for the position they’re seeking to fill is between $60,000 and $70,000 per year. By definition, if you want more, you won’t be worth it. No one is, you see, because the survey says so. These wages are almost always less than what you need to have an above-average existence. We’ll get into the specifics of breaking out of the stated salary ranges later.

Who Always Earns Far More than He Or She Is Worth?

This morning, I looked up a different salary range, which I’m sure you’ll find interesting. It is how many multiples of the average worker’s pay corporate CEOs earn.

According to Payscale.com, General Electric’s CEO earns 139 times the average pay of GE’s workers. That’s $11,271,000 for CEO Immelt and $81,000 for the average Joe or Josephina. Honeywell’s CEO earns 211 times the median pay. At Goodyear, life is good indeed for the CEO, who gets 311 times the average.

Would you say these individuals are earning far more than they’re worth?

How much is too much?

And who is to say?

In the case of CEO pay, that decision is not made by the human-resources department. It is made by the board of directors. They may be chums of the CEO.

One