{"id":33757,"date":"2017-03-07T02:08:12","date_gmt":"2017-03-07T10:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=33757"},"modified":"2017-02-01T20:13:32","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T04:13:32","slug":"maximum-income-minimum-effort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/03\/07\/maximum-income-minimum-effort\/","title":{"rendered":"Maximum Income, Minimum Effort"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Marseille,
Marseille, 2013<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Would you rather work 10 hours a week and earn $1,000 a week or would you rather work 100 hours a week and earn $2,000 a week?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Is it worth it?<\/h2>\n

I think you would prefer the first option.<\/p>\n

The first option, you are getting paid $100 an hour. The second option you are getting paid only $20 an hour.<\/p>\n

But in the second option, you are getting paid more.<\/p>\n

But is it worth it?<\/p>\n

Trade-offs<\/h2>\n

There are so many other domains we can apply this line of thinking:<\/p>\n

If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a bodybuilder, would you rather gain 5 pounds of muscle for working out once a week, or would you rather gain 7 pounds of muscle for working out everyday?<\/p>\n

Of course you would prefer the first option \u00e2\u20ac\u201d you get the maximum gains for the least amount of effort.<\/p>\n

The law of diminishing returns<\/h2>\n

In almost everything in life, there are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153diminishing returns.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d More effort, more work, and more input will not necessarily give you more returns (proportionally).<\/p>\n

For example, just because you work 2x as hard doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean you will get 2x the results. If you work 2x as hard, you might only get 1.2x the results.<\/p>\n

Similarly, if you work 4x as hard, you might only get 1.5x the results.<\/p>\n

So why put in the extra effort?<\/p>\n

Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be vain<\/h2>\n

There are some people in life who want to \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcmaximize\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 everything in their life \u00e2\u20ac\u201d even though they need to put an unnecessary amount of extra effort.<\/p>\n

This is fine if you want to become truly world-class. If you want to become the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fastest sprinter, you will probably have to put in 10x effort to improve your speed by 1%.<\/p>\n

But honestly for most things in life, we should aim to get the maximum results for the least amount of effort. Like the saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It is vain to try to accomplish with more work than which is necessary.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Maximum income for minimum effort<\/h2>\n

Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s say you earn $40,000 a year, and all your basic needs are met. Sure you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have that<\/em> much extra money to put away, you still might have some debt, and you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford a BMW or Leica.<\/p>\n

Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s say you work 40 hours a week for that $40,000 a year. Are you willing to double your working-week (80 hours a week) in order to earn $50,000 a year? Will that extra $10,000 a year really make a difference in your life?<\/p>\n

Or would you rather get the maximum income for the minimum amount of work (for your lifestyle), and use all your extra time to do creative work? To do more photography, more writing, more reading, more collaborations?<\/p>\n

If you have a business, why work more than you need to? Do you really need more clients? Do you really need to earn more money? Do you want to increase your lifestyle? Put more 0\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in your bank account?<\/p>\n

Wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you rather spend more time doing creative things instead?<\/p>\n

Value your time above all else<\/h2>\n

Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sell yourself cheap. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be cheap in your eyes.<\/p>\n

Your time is the most valuable asset to you. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sell your time for extra income. Especially when there are diminishing returns.<\/p>\n

Rather, whenever possible, try to trade your money for more time.<\/p>\n

Time is what we all desire. Time is the ultimate luxury. To have the time to think, to meditate, to contemplate, and to do creative acts.<\/p>\n

Advice for myself<\/h2>\n

If I were to have another full-time office job agin, my suggestion to myself would be: do the minimum amount of work possible to not<\/em> get fired. Just put in your 40 hours in the week, and don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t put in extra time. Collect your salary, your health benefits, your 401k \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and dedicate the rest of your time to your own pursuits.<\/p>\n

If you own your own business, be realistic about how much you really \u00e2\u20ac\u0153need\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in life \u00e2\u20ac\u201d not \u00e2\u20ac\u0153desire.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Then once you are living comfortably off, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work more<\/em> (for a small percentage of extra income). The way I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m applying this to my own business\u00e2\u20ac\u201d not trying to do more workshops for workshops sake to earn more money. Rather to minimize the amount of workshops and traveling I am doing, for the maximum \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bang for the buck\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and to devote more time blogging, creating and sharing information, and spending time with Cindy.<\/p>\n

Remember: focus on the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153minimum effective dose\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the maximum effect for the least effort.<\/p>\n

Live well,
\nEric<\/p>\n

Learn more: Entrepreneurship 101 ><\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Would you rather work 10 hours a week and earn $1,000 a week or would you rather work 100 hours a week and earn $2,000 a week?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33183,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_ek_photo_artist_note":"","_ek_photo_thesis":"","_ek_photo_camera":"","_ek_photo_place":"","_ek_photo_human_moment":"","_ek_photo_sequence":"","_ek_photo_question":"","_ek_photo_canonical_claim":"","_ek_photo_ai_summary":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/0-marseille-france_8465559399_o.jpg?fit=3087%2C2048&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}