Have you ever wondered why a brain surgeon/ neurosurgeon would earn an equivalent of one years earnings of a petrol station  attendant or a watchman in one hour?

I was not a very good student of business  studies in high school but at least I remember  we were taught the law of supply and demand. We were told that the higher the demand and the low the supply, the higher the price. When the supply is high and the demand is low, the price goes down.  For a long time I thought this is common knowledge to all of us but every time I visit my village, I find lots of avocados and other times mangoes rotting in the shambas, yet in the city they are very expensive.

The other day I discovered that one litre of water is more expensive than a litre of petrol, yet water should be free. If you look at everything in your surrounding, you will realise that everything God created is free. So why do we buy the bottled water? Because somebody has added value to the water, they get it from the river or dam, transport it, package it and brand it for you. So when you buy, you are not buying the water but the value added to the water. Look at oxygen, it is free but when you are in ICU, you buy it at a high cost.

I believe that money is a reward for value added. The more value your services or your products add to people the more money you earn. In many organisations you will hear  people complaining that they do the donkey work, yet they earn pea nuts and the CEO s and other specialised professionals earn many times more. Lets look at the brain surgeon, how many do we have in Kenya?  My research shows that we have only 17 neurosurgeons in Kenya, this means only 1 neurosurgeon for every 2.5M people. Clearly this explains why they must earn more, the demand is high and supply is low. How many security men, including police men do we have in Kenya?

This is to say that if you want to make money, then you must provide a rare/unique product or service that adds value to people,  alternatively you provide the already available product or service in a unique way. If you are employed and you want to grow in your organisation, you must differentiate yourself from the others. You must do the same job others are doing but in a unique style that delivers results faster and better in quality. If you are a sales man, you must find a unique approach and style to deal with your clients. Having been an insurance salesperson, I know that the top sales people do not sell the same way everybody else does, they find their unique strengths and maximise on them and deliver high sales figures and therefore they earn many times more than an average salesman. They are continuously  learning and improving their skills in order to differentiate themselves from the competition.

Remember, God created each one of us unique for a purpose but fear keeps us from bringing out that uniqueness and its no wonder your earnings are the way they are. Uniqueness is not necessarily studying a course that has not been studied by many. It has a lot to do with self mastery and self discipline. It has been said that no man is free who is not a master of himself.

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