200 dollars an hour
I keep talking about GaryVee because he has become a type of mentor to me. I have many mentors, as in people/figures that I look up to and take their advice. A point that I have heard repeated several/many times is the value of one's time. There are several ways to look at this, some, like Gary, have said that his time is worth a couple of thousand dollars an hour. This is true if you consult with him through vandermedia. Sam Hyde in an episode of Hyde wars also talks about Jordan Peterson giving his time and everyone’s around a 200 dollar price tag. So if we are valuing our time at the lowest point then it is 200 dollars. Would you spend 200 dollars an hour doing things you normally do? I know that for me binge-watching YouTube and playing video games(hearthstone) are not worth 200 dollars an hour.
This relates to things like compounding interest. If you invest money eventually the money gets compounded on top of each other and the money made from investing money is making you money. This is true of your time. Certainly, when Gary vee was relatively unknown no one was going to pay him $75,000 to give a speech, no one was going to pay him a couple thousand an hour to consult, but now thousands of hours later, building his brand, he is worth that money to some people. Several things are important when we are putting our time into something. I think we need to be building something that provides value to other people and that we can show progress on. When building a YouTube channel the metrics are there for everyone to see. If you get a million views you get a million views, someone can track your success. When I write these blog posts I am so happy to see when people like them. I went from writing to no one to having 4 people like my last post, that is a 400% increase and really makes my day, thank you.
When building something I think the most important part is that you can see progress and get feedback. without the feedback, it isn’t motivating at first. I have done my YouTube channel for just under two years and when views slowed down I did. I really was unmotivated to work on something that I thought only a couple of people were going to see.
I think there are two things we can do in this situation. There are things you are going to build. This blog, a YouTube channel, etc, that no one is going to see at first, but the work, dedication, and raw time you put in can eventually pay off. I certainly have not valued my time at 200 dollars or more an hour and I have wasted a lot of time in my life, but the only thing I can do is move forward and pour my time into new better things in hope that they grow and turn out better than things in the past.
You can look at it a couple of different ways. You are going to die, so the next step is how can I make the most of my time here on earth(or my life is meaningless(but that’s for another time)). You can either motivate yourself to avoid time-wasting activities with the fear of death or the fact that you value your time more than 0. when you value your time at 200 dollars you often will stop yourself before indulging in bad habits because you have to ask yourself is this thing worth 200 dollars. is it worth 200 dollars an hour to sit and watch a show you don’t enjoy? The things you know you enjoy and things that are going to have an impact on your life down the line are the things that are going to be worth 200 dollars an hour.
