As a financial coach I am getting this question a lot lately. "Should I invest in (Tesla, Apple, Microsoft, .........)?" Many times these are great companies that may very well be worth investing in, but I would not recommend them ahead of the one investment that has given me the biggest return on investment ... by far. Before I share with you my not-so-secret investment, let's talk about what investments are.
The idea of an investment is to take a certain amount of money and put it to productive use and get a return, or in other words, get more money back than you put in. In stocks this can be in the form of capital gains or dividends. With bonds this is the coupon payments or market gains.
This concept can be applied to so much more. Many people consider their college education an investment; they expect a return in terms of a higher paying job. Some people say they invest in a good suit. The term invest tends to be used very narrowly (stocks, bonds, real estate) or extremely broadly (does that suit have a return on investment?). I think that looking at anything where money goes out and you are expecting more back would be considered an investment.
So the biggest return I've received on any investment (using he above definition) is in personal development. Sure, my time at the university is included in that but because I spent tens of thousands of dollars on it, the return is not as good as other personal development investments.
Early in my career as a software engineer I found myself in an unenviable position. My supervisor told me, in no uncertain terms, that my performance was below expectations and I should probably find a position at another company. I was devastated. The employment cycles for software engineers was not at its peek and I had not networked like I should have.
I shared my situation with a mentor. He was a successful business owner (he had to be, he had nine children to feed). He recommended I subscribe to a corporate leadership development program for $120 per month. To someone who was about to lose his job the prospect of shelling out $120 a month seemed risky. But trusting my mentor, I signed up. The program consisted of a book a month and four CDs (anyone remember CDs?). My mentor recommended I study the book each month and listen to the CDs over and over, up to ten times a day. In addition he urged me to apply everything I was learning.
Going through this training I learned that it wasn't my technical skills but my people skills that were to blame. I learned how to mend professional relationships and how to find where I needed to add value to the business. Within a year I was not only still working for the company but got a promotion and some very nice raises.
Now I won't promise that personal improvement will be recognized where you work. I've seen many people who have made themselves more valuable to their employer without being rewarded for it. However, if done well it will make you valuable anywhere. Once you master the skills with someone who doesn't reward you for them, you can take those skills where they will be appreciated.
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