If you really want to make money, go to work for free.
It's no joke. A paycheck is a very short term reflection. Think about it:if you play everything perfectly and fall into the real world and a job that pays a fortune, what are you really going to do? If you're lucky, maybe $100,000? In fact, if your first job pays $100,000, you're about as rare as an ice cream-secreting unicorn.
Even if you can command that kind of money from the outside, you're still committing a financial suicide if you value money over experience. If you can get both – great, you've won the lottery. But most people at the start of their working lives will have choices that look like this:
Option A
Take a job that pays someone with my experience the most money. There's a catch here:your employer is paying top-end dollars and therefore expecting top-end results. This means you need to deliver from day one. You don't have the ability to take a lot of risks or take on tasks outside of your primary responsibilities. You'll get paid well, but you'll wear golden handcuffs.
Option B
Take a job that pays below market, or if you're really smart, pay nothing at all. The reason I say the smart person chooses nothing at all is that in most internships it is understood that you are paid in terms of knowledge, access and opportunity. When you are paid, it is understood that you will earn your living. Even when it's a relatively small amount, you're ranked differently in people's minds.
Related: The best career advice, from people who have made it to the top
Let's compare types of payments:
Cash
Money buys things. It's excellent. It's much easier to eat when you have the money to spend. But that's all. Once it's gone, it's gone. It's great if invested, but at the start of your career, you probably won't earn enough to invest a significant amount. If we're being honest, it will go toward things like food, rent, and entertainment.
Knowledge, Access, and Opportunity
None of the above can (yet) be deposited in the bank, but all are yours. Instead of turning your time into money, you turn your time into an investment in yourself.
Employers pay for results. Results come from knowledge. And as I'm sure you've heard before, who you know is as important as what you know. When you work for free, you will be shocked by those who are willing to give you their time. Once you're around great people, you can turn that access into opportunity by taking on responsibilities that allow you to blow people away.
Now the hard truth is, you always have to be awesome. This is the only way to make this strategy work. If you don't dazzle, you will be forgotten. But even in Option A, if you don't dazzle, you end up running in the middle.
Knowledge, access, and opportunity are the gifts that create long-term financial returns. For that reason alone, you better trade your time for knowledge and connections. Live with your parents, sleep on a couch, or sleep in your car if you must. If you're an unstoppable beast that really wants to succeed at the highest level, that's a very small price to pay. If you want to retire as a middle manager with a gold watch to show off your efforts, definitely choose option A.
Related: I stopped chasing money – here's what happened
This article originally appeared in the March 2018 issue of SUCCESS magazine.
