Are You Planting Financial Seeds In Order To Reap True Rewards?

Jimmy was one of the smartest people at his university. In fact, his GPA was 4.1, meaning he averaged over an A. He was valedictorian of his class as an economics major and everyone knew he would go on to greatness. When he graduated, he was offered prestigious positions at other universities. He became an economics professor and was generally regarded as one of the best in his field. He earned his PhD and became the “go-to” professor to interview on news or other TV programs for his expertise. If there was a crisis or a big boom, the talking heads on TV wanted his opinion, and Jimmy enjoyed this role.

The only problem was that being a famous economics professor had pressures. He believed that he needed to live in the right neigh­borhood and drive the right car. This was costly. While his salary was great—he was in the top 5 percent of wages in the United States— he was still incurring debt to maintain his lifestyle. In his fifties, he realized that he was not much further along than when he graduated. He was genuinely worried about having to reduce his lifestyle when he retired, if he was going to be able to retire at all.

Several of Jimmy’s students had become successful entrepre­neurs, business owners, and executives. Many were financially inde­pendent and loved running things by their old professor. On one occasion, a student named Jennifer had reached out for Jimmy’s thoughts on the real estate market. There had been a major drop in the retail sector of real estate, and Jennifer was interested in what Jimmy thought. Jimmy crunched the numbers and realized that retail was going to have a rough go of it in the short term until new uses of the space were identified. Jennifer thanked the professor, but before she could go, Jimmy asked her, “I have been at the top of my field for a while now, yet I am not far ahead financially. What am I doing wrong, Jennifer?”

Jennifer was caught off guard and said, “Nothing. You are the best in your field.” But the professor knew better and pushed. “Come on, you must have more to say. What am I doing wrong?” Jennifer looked at her old professor wryly and said, “Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit, but wisdom is knowing that putting tomato in your fruit salad will ruin it.” She then chuckled, but saw that the professor was not joining in. She became serious and explained, “There are plenty of really smart people out there with lots of knowledge, but without action that knowledge is wasted.”

Jimmy thought about this for a minute and asked her to clarify. “Professor, you can teach about one hundred students per year at your university, and the university charges them X dollars per credit hour, so your compensation is generally limited unless you leverage it. You can leverage it by publishing your works, by creating content, by syndicating your predictions, by licensing the formulas you have created, by investing in accordance with your knowledge, and any number of other ways. But you have chosen to use your labor as your primary source of income and have not planted the seeds of your knowledge in the market to allow them to yield fruit.”

That night Jimmy made a commitment to planting the seeds of his knowledge in various markets. Jennifer’s words would not be lost on him, and even though he was one of the smartest people in academia, he had not been wise enough to allow himself to see the truth. He was only one man, and without leveraging his time and talents, he would never be truly free. He would always be exchanging his time for money unless he planted his seeds wisely. He laughed out loud when he thought about it: “What do you get if you eat the seeds for your harvest … a turd made of seed.”

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbooksauthors/2023/09/25/are-you-planting-financial-seeds-in-order-to-reap-true-rewards/