Beginners Lessons
As a younger kid, it was instilled in me that working was an honor and a privilege. One that if I spent time applying myself intentionally I would make enough money to buy things with. Big things like cars, houses, and such. So by the time I was legally able to work, I did. I definitely didn’t want to flip burgers or mow lawns or do a paper route. I knew I had to be selective in my choice. Shortly after my fourteenth birthday, I scoped out this sports card collectors shop down the road from the house.
At first, I became a customer, making a few visits, getting to know the people that worked there and eventually mustering up the sack to go in and ask for a job. Forwardness is something that has served me since. Being fourteen, I didn’t fully understand the value of time and agreed to the sum of $3.50/hr. Store owner said it was because I didn’t have any experience. That day, besides asking a million dumb questions and interacting with a couple customers, after four grueling hours of investigating the rare collection and scanning the inventory I realized that my money was already spent. I had built my list of cards that I would buy if I had the money. After being paid for the day, I turned around and gave him almost all of his money back. I left that day with like $1.75.
But I walked with two things: The knowledge that time, if invested well, can appreciate in value. Time is not for sale, value is. And my first Michael Jordan card.
I saw my time as valuable and trading it for money that could immediately be re-invested seemed like a smart idea. It paid off. According to eBay, that Jordan card is worth at least 2 g’s right now.
A few weeks later, same thing, scoped out a comic book store, did the formality, asked for job. This time for $4/hr. Fell in love with some of the inventory. This time for six hours. I made sure to walk with at least $10. Comics just weren’t enough of my thing. Never went back. I felt like my time was more valuable invested elsewhere. So I waited until the Summer to get my next job.
The next job was one that would shape and mold me in a way that nothing else in my life has. I spent eleven seasons of fourteen years during my adolescent and young adult life that gave me a perspective into humanity, conduct, and persuasion that not many have the privilege to experience. During my time at Muirfield Village Golf Club as a caddie I learned more about leadership, business, growth strategies, risk calculation, sales processes, and how to scoop a ball out of water with a sixty degree wedge than any school could have taught me.
It started with a call from my friend. He told me there was a training class that lasted two hours and if I made it through I’d be an official caddie afterwards. So I went. Started working the following weekend. The Caddie Master, Jeff Kraker, would become a focus of disdain and gratitude like no other person in my life for the entirety of my time there. He was a quintessential character in my life and one that added significantly to my experience there. I will honestly never forget him.
My first season was spent waiting around in the caddie shack for entire days. Sometimes from 6am until the last loop tee-ed off. That might be 10 hours on some days. I’d walk with no pay. I’d have to call my dad to come drive back out to pick me up. That thing I said about “time is not for sale, value is”, was learned in earnest on that course. I knew that I wouldn’t make a million bucks that year, but the time I was investing was literally an education into a world otherwise not afforded to most. So I stuck it out. I was making about $20 per loop. Sometimes more, sometimes less. I understood the decision I was making at the time and continued to ride it out. I made garbage cash that summer.
By the following year, I had noticeably gotten better at the job and started making much more money now carrying two bags. Spending a lot of time in the shack I started getting to know some of the other caddies and looking up to some of the older ones. Built some of the best relationships of my life on the course and off with the people I met there. Exceptional people. The stories and lessons that exist within the bubble of that golf course are legendary. It was an intoxicating environment. Literally and figuratively. I learned to master the game of Euchre that summer and donated my boombox so we could listen to music while we played. Made enough that year to buy my first car. A 1984 gun metal gray Honda Civic. Ended the summer with a knot of cash.
The whole time it honestly felt like I was getting paid to learn while making great friends and meeting some of the world’s wealthiest and most influential people. All that time I wasn’t just about the game of golf (or euchre) but about the value of money and time, about human relationships and social adaptation, how trust is built, how communication is paramount to success on a team, and what it takes to persuade decisions for favor. People really don’t care as much about your pedigree as you would think. It all comes down to being an authentic person driven by a mission and able bodied/unencumbered enough to execute. That’s what every honest, successful person had that I met. Wealthy or otherwise. Those were the people that I eventually aimed to emulate.
When that second season ended, the carving of my manhood had begun. I took the skills I learned and put them to use in all areas of my life. I now had confidence, purpose, and the skills to achieve and obtain most anything I wanted. So I did.
Invest your time wisely for it to gain value
My biggest takeaways from that second summer: Time is the only currency and value is extracted by others from your time after you’ve invested enough of it to become an expert at something. Value is gained by how much you bring to your time and what you’re willing to absorb. Maybe it’s common knowledge, but value comes from what you invest in and not what you expect out. Be that with time or money. The return will always be more when you approach things this way. Be it financially, intellectually, emotionally, whatever. There is always something to be gleaned when you’re aware of the value to be added or extracted.
My advice: Pay close attention to the transaction of your time for what other’s deem it’s worth. Sometimes it equals out. Often times it doesn’t. Don’t assume your time is the only thing you have to trade for money. It can and will be easily commandeered if you do not make your boundaries clear. Decreasing the value of it. Take inventory of your value before you simply hand someone the keys to your days. There is an abundance of money to be had, time is supremely limited. If your time is valuable it will be rewarded with money. But YOU must make it valuable.
Barnes.
