Learn to Earn

I love that my son Felix heads to the local supermarket every friday, saturday and sunday - to stack shelves and earn himself some pocket-money. He has a great work ethic - he fully understands that we need to ‘earn’ things in life: we need to earn money (to make our way); we need to earn any skills we might want; we need to earn our happiness; we need to earn the trust of others, etc. Anything worthwhile needs to be earned. My father taught me the value of earning as I am now trying to do in the case of my own son. Something earned is also something valued.

On the mat we need to learn the technique; then we need to drill the technique; then we need to pressure-test it; until we finally take some level of ownership of it … in other words, we need to earn it. 

All the great stuff is earned. When we earn it, we enjoy it, we appreciate it, we understand what we have traded for it and in doing so, we attribute value. Learn to earn … a serious skill in and of itself. 

• JBW