The Curse of Earning Attitude

Bred Aeon, a time management philosopher, narrates his story saying: "One day I was with a colleague of mine in a coffee shop. He was a contractor. As we were talking, he looked slightly annoyed and impatient so I asked him, Jack, what is going on, man? Is everything all right? And he said: 'Just that I hate wasting my time makes me so annoyed and angry'." Bred says: "I asked him what you mean by that?" His friend Jack said: "Look, I get a hundred and sixty dollars every hour, so every hour I spend with you, I am losing a $160." And more shockingly his friend Jack said: "And I do spend some time with my children, but it makes me angry because I could earn $160 in the hour I spend with them." 

By analyzing the anecdote aforementioned we may come to this conclusion that Jack's earning attitude overwhelmingly influenced him. Jim Rohn, my mentor, says: "If you don't like something so change it; if you can't change it, change your attitude." Surely, Bred's friend wasn't doing something wrong with his time. It was just that he had the false perception of the objects he was in contact with.

Attitude is a perception about the objects; may that be a person, thing, place, event, or about a situation. Our attitude decides whether a glass is half empty or half full. Our attitude defines us and our future. Normally, we categorize attitudes into two broad categories; positive and negative attitudes. However, the topic here is the two other important categories of attitude. The earning and learning attitudes.

Our family, childhood, and the society that we live in influences our attitude the most. Surveys mention that most of the children's attitudes are that of their parents. This refers to a component of attitude building, called association. People that we spend most of our time with, mostly influence our attitude; may that be a father or a street friend. Secondly, our society affects our attitude, the language, the customs, and traditions, or even our castes and nations that we belong to, they all impact our attitude. And these components mostly define our present and future. 

As I mentioned above, our attitude defines us. If we have an earning attitude, we will most probably look for our monetary benefits in most of our daily tasks. A father with an earning attitude will question himself of what he gets when he gives time to his children. A friend with an earning attitude will question himself of what he gets when sitting with his friend in a café. A worker with an earning attitude will question himself of what he gets when he gives the extra hour to his employer. And this list goes on and on forever.

Human understanding and history bear witness to the fact that life is only more purposeful when practical knowledge is abundant. Thus, it is critical that we, in every realm of our lives, focus more on the acquisition of knowledge than the monetary benefits. The monetary gains diminish but not the knowledge. A suggestion from a wise man might earn you all that you might earn with your entire life's hard work. Therefore, the Chinese proverb says: "Ten minutes meeting with a wise man is better than a month's study of books."

Earning attitude has become a social norm. Parents send their children to schools, colleges, and universities not for their mental growth and acquisition of knowledge, rather for having a future that earns them a hefty amount of wealth. As a result, we have got a more materialist society that has no moral values in it. Complaints about social depreciation in social norms are a common hearing too. And why would not it happen? We are more or less achieving what they train us for.

Now to get rid of all this chaos, we need not move a single stone of its place; rather, we need to change our attitude. That is when we send our children to school and college to study, we need not force them to choose a subject that earns them hefty salaries; rather, they shall pursue their passion. This will not only help them know more about general life but will help them monetarily as well. We shall not think about the time with family as a waste. The time with a friend who can endow you a nice suggestion and relieve you of your mental stress. And for students, the feeling that they waste their time at schools, colleges, and universities as they will not get any job because of it. Most of the students fall behind just because of their this attitude, not if they had studied all they could in the best way.

Thus, it is implicitly clear that we should understand the notion that 'Time is money' more precisely. Thinking of time being wasted with family, friends and in learning centers is a false perception. Asking all the time "What is there for me in it?" might not be the right question everywhere, every time. Some times our willingness to sacrifice for the success of others and trust in Allah will earn us the amount that can fill the earth and every discovered spot of the space which we will see as the eyes close.