Time Makes Money; Money Makes Time

Time Makes Money; Money Makes Time

One of the main reasons I write on the concept of Time Awareness is that I believe most people work their entire life spending all of their time creating situations in which they create more work for themselves, so that they are forced to make more money, in order to solve all of the situations and problems that they just created by themselves. I see this in all areas of life from the emotions people show, to thoughts that run through their head, to what they spend, what they eat, and the total sum of what they do every day of the week. I believe that people work very hard spending every valuable hour of their life just to make money, so that someday they can use that money to make their life simpler and have more time to be flexible with their own leisure time. This is referred to as trading hours for dollars, or what I would call spending Free Time, your leisure time, for dollars. This is also referred to as people Spinning Their Wheels. To best illustrate this point, I have provided the following story that I have heard both on the audiobooks, the 4 Hour Work Week and the 80:20 Principle.

An American businessman took a vacation to a small coastal Mexican village on doctor’s orders. Unable to sleep after an urgent phone call from the office the first morning, he walked out to the pier to clear his head. A small boat with just one fisherman had docked. Inside the boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish.

“How long did it take you to catch them?” the American asked.
“Only a little while”, the Mexican replied in surprisingly good English.
“Why don’t you stay out longer and catch more fish?” the American then asked.
“I have enough to support my family and give a few to my friends,” the Mexican said as he unloaded them into a basket.
“but…what do you do with the rest of your time?”
The Mexican looked up and smiled, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Julia, and stroll into the village each evening, where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life, senor.”
The American laughed and stood tall. “Sir, I’m a Harvard M.B.A and can help you. You should spend more time fishing, and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. In no time you could buy several boats with the increased haul. Eventually, you will have a fleet of fishing boats.”
He continued, “instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you would sell directly to the customers, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village, or course, and move to Mexico City then Los Angeles, and eventually New York City, where you could run your expanding enterprise with proper management.”
The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, senor, how long will this take?”
To which the American replied, “15-20 years. 25 years tops. ”But what then, senor?”
The American laughed and said, “that’s the best part, when the time is right, you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions.”
“Millions, senor? Then what?”
“Then you would retire and move to a small coastal fishing village, where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with you wife and stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play guitar with your amigos…”

-Mark Albion