How To Start Investing In Yourself

In "On Strengths and Weaknesses," I touched very lightly on the idea of thinking of yourself as a business endeavor that you invest resources in.

If you've taken inventory of your abilities and limitations, then you now have a better understanding of your resources as well. So, let's talk about some tips on how to best invest those resources.

Say you hired an investment adviser. The first two pieces of advice that they will give you are these:

1- Do not invest money you cannot afford to lose.

2- Diversify

"Sometimes it just is not the right time to invest."

The market, much like the world we live in, is volatile. There are booms and busts, ups and downs, prosperous times and collapses. Therefore, any investment you make will carry a measure of risk.

When investing in yourself, you will find that you have, among others, three main resources to invest: time, energy, and money. Only you can assess how much of each, if any, you can afford to invest. Whatever you decide, the rule stays the same: do not invest time, energy, money, or resources that you cannot afford to lose.

With the first tip out of the way, I can now talk about the main reason I am writing this: diversification.

"Diversification is one of the main pillars of successful investment."

An investment consultant would tell you that you should diversify your portfolio. "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." They would tell you that a healthy investment portfolio has the right balance of stocks and bonds, and even the stocks are diverse. They would not advise you to invest all your money in one company, one industry, or one location. This is because by centralizing your resources you centralize the risk.

So, how does that apply to you? Here's how: Do no invest all of your resources in one place. In other words, don't invest all your resources in the one job or the one title. Don't invest all your resources in one set of skills. Diversify.

As the past few years have demonstrated, many of us have become/have been deemed replaceable within the context of work and/or business. Multi-billion-dollar companies have laid off thousands of highly skilled and specialized employees and as machine learning and artificial intelligence advances continue, many skills and roles have been and will be automated.

So, how do you diversify? Learn new things. Develop new skills. Pick up a creative hobby. Talk to someone from a different age group or background. Dare to follow the thread of a seemingly silly question until you find an answer. You might be surprised what you learn.

But I know that you might also be looking for something more concrete; something you can start working on now and see tangible results soon.

Here's one simple exercise to get you started:

1-      Go to the job board or site you prefer to use

2-      Look up five companies you like, admire, or wish to work with

3-      Scroll through the vacancies they list and make note of common skills they require.

4-      Identify the skills that intrigue you or excite you

5-      Work on learning and developing those skills

Once you do that, you will have built yourself a sizeable arsenal of transferrable skills.

And on that note, keep an eye out for more on some of the transferrable skills I have picked up from places you would not expect.

Thank you for reading! If you found this helpful, please feel free to share.