If I were to ask you whether you want to make a lot of money, what would your answer be? We are strangers but I am quite sure I know what your answer will be. You will say yes, right?

So, how are you doing so far?

You have probably done at least one of the following: asked for a raise, took on a second job, and looked for freelancing opportunities.

You are probably starting to realize that even if you are superman, you still have only 24 hours each and every day. And that you can only double or triple that amount of money you make.

So, right now, you are probably working your butt off, and making pretty good money. You have enough to spend, and then some. You drive a nice car, and can holiday in exotic locales if the fancy strikes you.

But the price that you pay is that you are a slave to your job, or jobs. And free time and hobbies are things that other people have, not you.

But among your circle of friends, there are some who “buck the trend”. In some ways they are like you in that they are well-educated, intelligent and well-to-do.

But the resemblance ends when it comes to their relationship with work. They never seem to work late at the office, they always seem to have time to chat on the phone and actually, half of their time seems to be spent on the golf course, or in their clubs, or otherwise relaxing.

In other words, your friends seem to be able to make the same amount of money as you but they do it with much lesser time commitment, effort and stress than you.

Do you wonder why?

There might be a myriad of different reasons why such a difference exists but I think it boils down to one statement:

“You get paid for the amount of work that you do.”

You believe in it, they don’t.

Think about it for a moment. Every time you want to earn more money, you think of giving something in return. Nothing wrong with that, except that you have limited time and talent – and you want to earn a lot of money.

How do you think your friends will go about trying to make more money?

I am quite sure that working harder would not be the way that they are going to do it. Most likely they will be looking to see how they can make the money while still spending the same amount of time and effort.

Your friends know that while they have superior talent and are willing to work hard, it will only take them that far. To go the next step, that is, to make a lot of money, they need to leverage or “expand” their time, resources and talent.

So, start leveraging your time and talent instead of simply exchanging them for cash.