What is worth investing in?

Have you ever heard someone tell you that a car is a bad investment? I used to hear this all the time, and I finally figured out why it bugged me so much.

They’re not thinking about it the right way. They think that an “investment” must pay you money back.

By that definition, they’re right. A car is a crappy investment. It loses 20% of its value the second you drive it off the lot. It’s lost half its value in the first 3 years.

But you don’t buy cars to sell them. You buy them to DRIVE them.

Some things pay us back in dividends that we cannot equate to dollars and cents.

One of the things I learned a long time ago is that value – REAL value – is not really quantified by a price tag.

Think about it: The things in life that you buy can all be replaced. But the things you were given for FREE – your mind, your health, your body, your life…

Those things cannot be replaced. They’re beyond value.

That knowledge allowed me to make another valuable association in my mind, and that was that any money I spent that improved ME was the best investment in the world.

I’ll get back to this in a minute…

Have you ever spent money on a woman and thought, “Man, this sucks! I’m spending all this dough to impress her, and I BETTER get something out of it in the end.”

Funny enough, when we project that attitude, the woman usually picks up on this and pulls away. It becomes one of those self-fulfilling prophecies.

But when I look at taking a woman out to eat (something I only do if she’s really deserving, and I feel we need to share that experience), I don’t look at it as an “I provide, you provide” situation. That sets us both up for failure.

I look at paying for this shared experience as an investment in ME first. I get fun out of it, and then my fun will help me give back to her in the form of a better date than she’s probably ever experienced in her life.

I don’t say that from ego; I say that from a sincere belief that what I’ve got is worth it to a woman. It’s like the feeling you’re selling someone a really fantastic house, and they don’t even realize yet what a deal it is, or all the wonderful features of it, like the garden, the pool, the huge wine cellar, the flower garden, the view…

When you know you’ve got the value, then you take on a different selling posture. This is true with real sales, as well as other areas, like at traction and pickup.

When I talk to people I know about computers, I inevitably get into my evangelism mode about Apple computers. Anyone that knows me knows that I swear by the ease of use, the productivity, and the common sense intelligence behind their design. When I get talking, people start to pickup on my conviction and passion, and I’ve converted a few in the process.

This from a guy who was certified in Microsoft technologies for most of his early IT career…

The point is that I know the value, and I believe enough to sell it even when I don’t see a penny of profit from it.

That’s communicating value to a woman.

Now, back to the association I was talking about before…

One thing I realized was that investing in ME was the best thing I could do. The more I improved myself, the better my life got.

The sad fact is that most guys will spend more time memorizing useless sports statistics to impress their GUY friends than they will learning a few priceless strategies that will get them the success they always wanted with women.

How have you invested in yourself in the last year?

• Have you bought any books on self-development?
• Have you learned any new skills?
• Have you worked on any parts of your personality to get rid of some rough edges?
• Have you taken a class on a new topic?
• Have you GROWN as a human being?

These are important questions, ones that we often neglect to think about. Mostly because we let the urgent things take over our lives, and they crowd out the important things that we never get to.

A famous author has a great analogy for this: If you think of the important things in your life as big rocks, and the small stuff as pebbles and sand, you can fit the most in a jar by putting the big rocks in first. The small stuff will just fill in the gaps when you pour it in afterwards.

But if you pour the sand in first, there isn’t enough room for the big rocks.

I want to motivate you to get to work on those big rocks.

One of the biggest rocks you can tackle is your self-confidence and self-esteem. These are the two large powers that will shape your life and your success.