Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Compensation in non-financial currencies

   In the building business we are generally focused on one currency - the U.S. dollar.  If asked, our peers may also grope for answers for foreign currencies including euros, Canadian dollars, and pesos.  In my perspective we also deal in other currencies of pride, respect, self confidence and reputation. A solid balance sheet in these currencies is a valued commodity.

  It is always a good time to make deposits in accounts for every currency.  You can’t buy pride but surely you can earn it with continued excellent work.  You can squander it with poor work or deteriorating business ethics.  Pride can be reinvested through shared exuberance in talking about your successes or perhaps mentoring others.

  Respect can’t be bought, but surely can be earned in your treatment of others.  Respect can be lost through a moral fall or it can be leveraged for a host of benefits including gaining loyalty, trust or good will.   

  Valuable self-confidence can be earned by successes over time. Self confidence is built through risk analysis and mitigation. It can be lost in poor planning, poor execution or a lack of trend analysis leaving you wondering just what happened.

  These are not exclusive currencies but a few bullets to get you thinking about your current balance sheet.  Have you ever measured your successes in these currencies?  Metrics can be established and a tally carried in full expectation that you will be wealthy over time in many currencies.  As the dollar economy continues to beat our industry, some focus on the other currencies is in order. Start making some deposits in other currencies.  And these are non-taxable!

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