In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience.

  In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later.  Every entrepreneur and every business owner receive these two coins for their effort and labor.  In our hurried and harried world, it is easy to zero in on the cash payment side.  This, however, is often short-sighted and leads to short-lived success. When you focus on experience first you will create a foundation for your business which will last.  The great Zig Ziglar gave countless speeches for free – just to gain experience.  Many an entrepreneur has been willing to start in the mail room of a business or take a low level position just to learn the ropes. Certainly cash-flow matters and you cannot work for free forever – but you should always look for opportunities to expand your experience and pick up additional insight even if you aren’t getting paid cash for it today. So whether you are doing some pro-bono work, volunteering for a charity, providing service in your community or just supporting a person or company you can learn from – all of these opportunities represent a chance for you to be paid in experience.  Remember, when you are paid with experience on the front-end your payment in cash on the back-end is usually great.