Note: This article is based on the work of Darius Forou, in which he tells us about the seven skills that generate income.
This question was one of the best I've ever received. I often write about how American management consultant Peter Drucker and many other business thinkers think about the need to generate more value in the marketplace.
Seven skills that generate income
| Anything you can learn is a skill. |
The best way to generate value is to acquire valuable skills, and in my experience, I believe that there are many useful skills. But there are seven skills that actually produce income because they affect the bottom line of the organization immediately, and I only stick to the skills that every professional must acquire.
1. Persuasion
Persuasion is the number one income-producing skill I can think of, and perhaps this will come as no surprise to you. If you've read enough articles on personal growth or listened to enough interviews with successful people, you know that persuasion is everything.
You market yourself and your ideas all the time, and in fact, that's what I do now. There is nothing bad about being persuasive; people simply do not want to be fooled, and I am no different.
But real marketing is nothing more than a problem solver. Most people assume that you become better at sales through marketing. But I've learned that you do better if you learn more about human psychology and why people buy.
2. Writing
I've said this for years: "Writing is one of the most important skills in today's economy, because being able to translate your thoughts into words in an effective way will help you stand out from the crowd, and my entire career has been built on this skill."
Writing is also an income-generating skill with a quick payoff. A small improvement will lead to a big result in your career.
3. Public speaking
Every time you answer a question in a group session, talk to your team at work, or try to bring a group of people together, you are speaking in front of an audience. You don't have to be a TED speaker to acquire this skill.
It is difficult to explain ideas clearly; we often use too many words, and the strange thing is that we all think we are good at talking; we talk all the time. So we think we can stand before a large crowd and give a little speech. I wish it were that easy. The truth is that speaking in front of a large audience takes practice; otherwise, we will be garrulous and say nothing meaningful at all.
4. Communication
In my experience, most people working in the field of business lack communication skills, although mastering this skill requires nothing more than sharing ideas and feelings in an effective manner, and we emphasize the term “effective.”
If people do not understand you, you are not good at communicating. Many times others do not understand us, and we may think that the problem is related to the person or group we are addressing, but the problem is not with them.
It is in you, and fortunately, you can solve this problem by seeking to communicate in a better and more effective way.
5. Concentration
This is one of the skills that generate a great income for you. Most people are addicted to their smartphones and cannot concentrate for longer than 90 seconds.
If you improve your ability to concentrate on a difficult task for several hours straight, you will be surprised at how much you can accomplish. The more productive you are, the more rewards you will get.
6. Leadership
The more value you can provide, the more you are likely to earn. Now, if you acquire the aforementioned income-generating skills, you can certainly provide more value, which is great, but did you know that even better is to lead a group of people and get them to do the same? When you always focus on yourself, you will reach a certain limit, but if you focus on achieving results in a group, you can make quantum leaps.
The skill of leadership is complex. After all, the best leaders are the ones who direct others by setting an example. But there is something more effective than just setting a good example, and that is the skill of leadership. This is why high-performing salespeople are not always good sales managers.
I do not think that leadership can be learned from books. You simply need the desire to be a leader, and if real leaders around you sense that desire, they will pave the way for you.
7. Logical thinking and decision-making
Most people don't view decision-making as a skill. But anything you can learn is a skill to me, and the reason most people think that decision-making is not a profitable skill is that they only look at the results. But you cannot control the results.
For example, I can decide to publish three articles per week, but this does not mean that more people will read them.
That is why I do not look at results. Instead, I look at the decision-making process that you can improve and develop by adopting mental models. I think that takes a lot of work. So instead, I recommend improving your thinking skills.
Decision-making is basically the logic applied to your decisions. My favorite way to become better at thinking is to study philosophy. It does not matter which type; all philosophy is based on logic.
In conclusion
| The best way to generate value is to acquire valuable skills. |
Too often, people say something like, "Well, that was a great article, but it didn't teach me how to do that thing." These people are not interested in actually learning; they think they can learn how to acquire seven skills in one article, and I wish that were the case.
The truth is that it takes time and effort to improve these skills, and you will have to take classes, read books, talk to experts, follow certain exercises, etc.
Author Scott Young recently published a book called Ultralearning with excellent advice on mastering hard skills. I highly recommend this book if you're really interested in learning faster.
But the main lesson here is that acquiring income-generating skills is hard, which is exactly why you stand out from the crowd. When you possess those skills that we talked about in this article, you are not just a skilled person; rather, you are someone who knows how to learn. He who knows how to learn can learn anything.
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