In our daily lives we all embark on different economic activities that give us the opportunity to earn income depending on the level of value each person is able to offer in his/her field of endeavor. However, has it ever occurred to you that your ability to earn income or get paid is as a result of the level of money you were able to harness and tap into at the time?
Most people work with the illusion that only 1 level of money exists, which is cash. While this is understandable, as a lot of people lack the training to give them the prerequisite skill to seamlessly integrate the other layers of money into their daily transactional relationships. In the next sections, I’ll be explaining the 5 individual levels of money and show you how you can harness their potential in your daily relationships.
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Credibility
The oxford dictionary defines credibility as the quality of being trusted or believed in. When the United States entered World War II in 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt trusted and believed in the ability of Sydney Weinberg as a wall street investment banker to help engage America’s private sector thus overcoming the nation’s considerable financial, industrial and organizational challenges.
A person’s credibility stems from years of service in a particular field. You have been tested and have been known to deliver over time, making you a powerhouse in your arena of expertise. Sydney Weinberg was such a powerhouse. Have you ever noticed that at a certain stage of a person’s career, deals become easier to clench? 5 seconds after a scheduled meeting starts the dotted lines are signed and the contract is won. This is because of the level of money that speaks volumes of a person’s/company’s credibility. The belief that they will deliver on set promises.
How Do You Build This Level Of Money? (Credibility)
Credibility is built over time by making sure your promises are kept. Delivering on time of that which you agreed to deliver on. Owning up to your failures without excuses. Nothing makes people more uncomfortable than a man/woman who always gives excuses when they don’t meet a deadline or supply products which are defective. Owning up to your shortcomings and going about making it right goes a long way to build your credibility in your chosen field.
When Apple came out with the iPhone 3 and customers complained that it was overheating after prolonged usage. The company offered incentives to their customers to motivate them to return their phones in a huge recall campaign. In the end the company was better for it, because they had instilled a perception of excellence in their customers worldwide, which went a long way to build the credibility of the apple brand.
Credibility and accountability thus go hand in hand. To be credible you have to hold yourself accountable for all your actions. You have to be mindful that compromising on quality affects the collective even in the smallest detail. Over time your reputation will precede you.
Drawbacks to the level of money
The harsh reality is that most people are not credible even after long years of service. Over time they leave a track record of insincerity and poor service or product rendition in their wake. China has a reputation for cutting corners when it comes to production of goods, little wonder they have built a reputation of poor quality when it comes to manufacturing. And the world has over time attributed this perception to all Chinese manufactured goods. This invariably means that when it comes to manufacturing, China has little to no credibility.
Credible titans have been known to fail to pass on the discipline of credibility to their children. This is probably why across generations, only a handful of people have been known to possess this personality trait. Which brings us to the second level of money.
2. Credible Relationships
In certain cases, one might seek favor from a credible individual by soliciting the help of another credible individual, this is known as a credible relationship. For instance I might need a specific car brand for a video shoot or some other reason. I could then reach out to Dangote, who’s the richest man in Africa, who in turn writes a note and instructs me to hand deliver it to Cosmos Maduka, the Nigerian millionaire owner of the Coscharis brand.
On reading the note, Cosmos immediately instructs that I’m given the keys to a Phantom Rolls Royce and allows me to drive out of his dealership without recourse to any payment. Now that’s the power of a credible relationship. A lot of wealthy and affluent individuals leverage on credible relationships to get contracts or curate favors. That is the benefit of this level of money
How Do You Tap Into A Credible Relationship?
The best way to harness the power of a credible relationship is by getting into a mentorship program, obviously one that wields great influence. This makes it easy to piggyback on the successes of your mentor while having access to his network of high net worth individuals.
Another way of accessing this level of money is by offering superior value to ones’ customer base with the hope that you could get included into their exclusive circle in the future. This is usually unlikely, as circles of this nature are exclusive for a reason. Being associated with one born into an opulent family is usually one of the most common ways people gain access to a credible relationship. A rich father might find it hard to decline the request of his son, a request which originally originated from a friend.
Drawbacks to this level of money
People seek to gain access to a credible relationship for a reason. To wield indirect influence in a particular direction. Most times those seeking favors from a credible relationship are themselves not credible, this could lead to all kinds of problems in the future. Take for instance, a man seeking a loan of a million dollars to start a business payable in 2 years, seeks the help of his friend whose father is wealthy.
Not wanting to disappoint his son, the father parts with the money, however after 2 years things don’t go according to plan, maybe the business fails. The friend who borrowed the money is bound by the terms of agreement to pay back the sum he borrowed.
The money is however not available so he violates the terms of agreement and in so doing shows that he is not credible which in the first place was the reason why he needed access to this circle of influence. On less the friend in need of funding for whatever reason is credible, this sort of relationship rarely ever works. Such a level of unreliability leads us to the next level.
3. Character
The Oxford dictionary defines the word character as the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. Character can be traced back to the Greek word “charassein”, meaning “to sharpen, cut in furrows, or engrave.” This word gave the Greeks charaktēr, a noun meaning “mark, distinctive quality” (a meaning that was shared by the Latin character). Thus a man/woman of character has to be precise in their dealings with others and must deal with the maximum amount of integrity.
This level of money is the currency in which financial institutions like banks deal in. They deal with corporate as well as retail customers with the highest level of accountability and integrity that way security of assets is guaranteed, which in turns ushers in more deposits, because customers believe that their cash or its equivalent is secured with the bank of their choice.
There’s a saying that cash first goes to integrity before competence. Over a hundred businessmen were interviewed and all confirmed that they would deal with a person who lacks competence, but has integrity as this character trait breeds loyalty.
How To Build Character?
It’s very difficult to form a particular character trait when an individual has grown into an adult. Whether it’s being truthful, honest, accountable or with integrity. These are values that are taught when one is still in his/her formative years and goes through life applying in his/her dealings with people. It is assumed that when you make the transition from your formative years to an adult state your character is already formed and old habits become too hard to break.
However, to shield oneself from shady characters, people usually insist that things be committed to writing when dealing with certain people. That way going against the terms that have been laid down would be construed as being without integrity or accountability which are in themselves character traits.
Most people go ahead to secure the services of lawyers to structure certain deals so that both parties involved are kept on their toes. Making for transparency in this sort of dealings.
Drawbacks
However one tries, no intermediary or go between can save you from the possible outcome if the party being dealt with is dishonest and lacks integrity. This in itself was the cause of the global financial crisis of 2008. When Goldman Sachs had rating companies rate toxic securities as AA and sold truckloads of these securities to other financial institutions. Talking about selling, leads us to the next level of money.
4. Competence
This is usually a measure of quality in the workforce. The skills that can get the job done. The Oxford dictionary defines competence as the ability to do something successfully and efficiently. Even though competence is not as important as the previous 3 levels of money, simply because there’s always a market for people who have the right skill to get the job done.
This level of money gets you earning based on what you know and how you can deplore this knowledge practically. Many people erroneously mistake character for competence. The 2 are not the same. It’s common to find a competent employee without character. Most times employees are not hired because they have character, but simply because they can get the job done.
How To Be Competent
Competence is obtained in school, whether this be the four walls of a university or as an apprentice under a master. Education and application leads to mastery. Such mastery over time breeds competence. It’s common practice for people to go to a university, secure a bachelor’s degree, work for a while, then go back to obtain a masters degree, gain more work experience and then it’s back to the university for a doctorate degree, these are all pathways to mastery.
Drawbacks to this level of money
No matter the level of competence, those operating in this level of money usually work according to the schedule laid down by a higher authority. They are not the masters of their time and have to work on a schedule. When you hear of people who are in a rat race, those with just competence are at the heart of that conversation.
5. Cash
This is usually what you get when the previous levels of money have been accessed. It’s the legal tender which is a byproduct of whatever value has been exchanged from being credible, fulfilling a goal with the use of a credible relationship, showing character in business or being competent in your line of work.
It is said that whenever a man/woman is seen with copious amounts of cash without the interplay of any of the previous levels of money that individual is a crook. Of course you could walk into cash by virtue of an inheritance, but chances are that someone would have amassed such great fortune by being credible in his line of business or by being a competent professional.
How To Get Cash?
For starters you might want to go back up and read up on the previous 4 levels of money and choose the one that best suits your personality. Then work your way from there. It’s literally that simple, of course you’ll need to put in some work, but in the end it does pay off.
Drawbacks to this level of money
There’s no drawback to cash, when gotten the right way. Ill gotten cash on the other hand causes all manner of problems. Few weeks ago, a video showing a boy from Nigeria went viral. In this video clip, the boy in question boasted that he could kill his parents for money, in fact he boldly stated that he could kill anyone for money. Now that’s an example of an individual who seeks to boycott the other levels of money with a view to tapping into the fifth level. Such gains are usually very short lived.
By now, I want to believe that you are caught up on the various levels of money and how they work. It’s important to be breasted on this as it could come handy when dealing with people or in making decisions as to what path you’ll like to take going forward. My desire is that you make informed decisions when faced with what path to take. And what better way to make the right decision, than knowing the attributes and properties of people that reside in each level of money.
