How valuable is your knowledge?
A friend alerted me to the existence of Ether.com. It's a good site to visit to better understand what is going on in today's economy.
Ether.com basically allows people to consult you on a topic you master. But before they can reach you by phone, they have to pay by credit card the rate that you ask for. For instance, you can charge people $15 to talk to you for 15 minutes.
My opinion is that people won't pay for knowledge, but they might pay for specific knowhow in order to achieve specific results. Indeed, the money won't lie in knowledge, but in knowing HOW to use knowledge.
Coaches have known this for a long time. Although they are not responsible for their clients' results, they often contribute more to achieving objectives than consultants (who often just write reports without being bothered or concerned with implementation details).
But let's get back to you.
Here's a blunt question to ask yourself: "Would anybody pay you $5 to talk to you for 60 minutes?"
The real question, of course, is: "What do you know that is so valuable that another person would pay you to get that knowledge?"
If your answer is "nothing", don't be depressed. Most people indeed don't have knowledge that another person would pay for. If they did, they would be writing books or they would have become consultants a long time ago.
And it's not exactly people's fault: we are educated and trained to be employees, that is, "doers." Not thinkers and certainly not consultants who are able to diagnose other people's problems and come up with relevant, feasible and affordable solutions.
However, if you want to become rich and happy in the new economy, you have to change your mindset from "doer" to "teacher".
The main reason is very simple: as long as you are paid to do something, then your earnings will ALWAYS be restricted to how much time you have every day.
But if you are paid to teach something, then you can use so many media platforms (Web, email, DVD, book, podcast, etc.) to transfer valuable knowledge to people.
Ether.com basically allows people to consult you on a topic you master. But before they can reach you by phone, they have to pay by credit card the rate that you ask for. For instance, you can charge people $15 to talk to you for 15 minutes.
My opinion is that people won't pay for knowledge, but they might pay for specific knowhow in order to achieve specific results. Indeed, the money won't lie in knowledge, but in knowing HOW to use knowledge.
Coaches have known this for a long time. Although they are not responsible for their clients' results, they often contribute more to achieving objectives than consultants (who often just write reports without being bothered or concerned with implementation details).
But let's get back to you.
Here's a blunt question to ask yourself: "Would anybody pay you $5 to talk to you for 60 minutes?"
The real question, of course, is: "What do you know that is so valuable that another person would pay you to get that knowledge?"
If your answer is "nothing", don't be depressed. Most people indeed don't have knowledge that another person would pay for. If they did, they would be writing books or they would have become consultants a long time ago.
And it's not exactly people's fault: we are educated and trained to be employees, that is, "doers." Not thinkers and certainly not consultants who are able to diagnose other people's problems and come up with relevant, feasible and affordable solutions.
However, if you want to become rich and happy in the new economy, you have to change your mindset from "doer" to "teacher".
The main reason is very simple: as long as you are paid to do something, then your earnings will ALWAYS be restricted to how much time you have every day.
But if you are paid to teach something, then you can use so many media platforms (Web, email, DVD, book, podcast, etc.) to transfer valuable knowledge to people.
posted by Super Peter at 7:47 AM
<< Home