Undervaluing Your Most Valuable Asset

To value something or someone is a complex concept when you reflect on it.

You might value your relationship with your spouse or other loved one, but you would generally never put a monetary value on it, right? You might value your house by looking at comparable houses and their recent selling prices – “comps” in the vernacular. If you own a car, it is probably losing value faster than anything else you own. Yet, you certainly still value the car.

You probably have assets invested in the market (ouch!) that have a value, too. And let us not forget that unless there is some sort of active speculation in play, a stock price is generally a reflection of how shareholders view the income-producing capability of the underlying company.

What about education? It is an intangible asset. Yet, aside from the fact that a well-furnished mind is a joy, college-educated adults undeniably earn more on average than do their less formally educated peers. Clearly in that sense, education is valuable.

So, as I say, to value something or someone is a complex concept.

Therefore, it is not surprising that you probably undervalue your most valuable asset because you probably do not see it as an asset. Yet it has an income stream just as a company or a dividend-paying stock does. It has a market value, just as a house or other tangible property typically does. You can invest in it and its value will probably go up. You can neglect it and its value will probably go down.

Interestingly, other than inherited wealth, for most people the asset I have in mind probably generates more income for a longer period than any other pre-retirement asset in your portfolio.

Have you guessed what it is yet?

Yes, it is your career.

Oddly enough, most people do not think of their careers as an asset. They more or less leave their careers—their most valuable asset—to chance.

They have no plan to develop it, no thought of investing in it, no reflection on its market value…

That is where The Barrett Group comes in. We are a career management firm. Clients who work with us often come back repeatedly as their careers mature. Why? Mainly, because we are very good at what we do. But also because their needs change over time. They value the professional sounding-board we offer to help them determine how to generate the most wealth and/or satisfaction from their career.

For example, here is client Kwasi Asare talking about why he invested in his career:

“It seemed weird to plunk down a lot of money after just getting laid off,” said Kwasi. “But after I reflected more on it, it became clear that this would be an investment in myself. I wanted to advance higher than the director level and possibly transition out of my industry, and The Barrett Group Program seemed to provide me the option to explore new opportunities and think outside the box.” 

With our help Kwasi landed a great job – and he even sweetened his compensation package with newly learned negotiation strategies. But more importantly, he recognized that he had not been maximizing his potential.

“I realize now that I should have left my former job a while ago. This whole experience really helped me take inventory of things in my career,” said Kwasi. “For 20 years I never thought about leaving my company. I never tested the landscape. That’s horrible! If I had known years ago what I learned from The Barrett Group, it might have set my career path in a very different direction.”

Kwasi might also have noted that what you don’t do often, you don’t do well. That is why he engaged the experts in career management when he needed to make a change. We have helped thousands of executives manage careers and have been at it for 35 years.

We start by asking clients to clarify their career objectives before they begin, because, after all, if you don’t know where you are going, you are very likely to go nowhere.

Our Clarity Program© doubles as its own stand-alone targeting tool, but it can also be applied as the first stage in our five-stage career management full program.

The full program offers these major steps:

• Targeting (The Clarity Program©)
• Packaging (multiple resumes, LinkedIn, and your personal brand)
• Market Access (discovering opportunities in the recruiter, published, and unpublished job markets)
• Preparation (interviewing skills and package negotiation) and
• On-boarding (avoiding the pitfalls of the newly hired even before you start).

Our program works across all kinds of industries and circumstances as evidenced by dozens and dozens of clients who have happily shared their success stories.

You probably employ a wealth manager of some kind to help you manage your money. Think of us as your career manager and consider investing in your most valuable asset. You may be surprised how much more it can generate in the right hands.