Who is at the helm of your economic future?

If you are anything like me you have by now grown tired of the doom profits in the daily press, advocating how our SA economy is on the verge of a slow-down, or that things are up, or things are going down. The reality is that none of us depends upon any national average! Your economic future, and your bottom line, are primarily up to you!

Many of you as regular readers of this Blog are employees, and some of you think your salary is determined by your boss, or your clients, or the economy. I appreciate your view.

In the long run, however, your personal wealth is more a function of savings and investment than any salary you might earn. Over time, your financial future is determined by your contribution, your skills, your energy, your ability to see and grasp opportunity, and the actions you take. Your company pay scale may play a role, but over the long-haul, you decide where you work, what you do, and how much value you contribute.

I would very much like to urge you to never make the mistake of thinking you work for anyone but yourself. You are the boss. or manager or owner of your own personal services company, and your economic future is in your hands. If you think about it, you are really hiring out your own services the business you own or the company you work for.

One of my clients was recently telling me how has worked for his local minicipality for several years, but felt stuck and unhappy. He decided to invest in property part-time, and since he could only do it part-time, decided he would have to be very efficient. He hired a coach, focused his time, and now earns more from his investments than from his full-time job.

The way your economic future will turn out is simply a reflection of your skills, efforts, commitment and choices, together with your value in the market-place. As many of you have already been planning for 2009, take time to reflect on your income for this year. If you are satisfied that it reflects your abilities, good for you! If not, reflect on what it is that you need to start doing differently from today to make the next year different from the present. If you are not satisfied with the results you are creating, why would these results be different next year or in the next 20 years? More of the same actions in the years to come will simply create more of the same results.