Most people have heard the metaphor that “time is money.” But what does that mean – time is money?
About 20 years ago, I heard Charles Faulkner, noted Neuro-Linguistic Programming author, developer and trainer, talk about the metaphors of business. “Time is money” is a big one according Faulkner, who claimed it had only been around about 150 years. So fast forward to today, and it’s been around about 170 years.
He traced its embrace to the early days of the railroads in the United States. Train tracks suddenly appeared in isolated towns and villages, linking the outposts to urban centers. Regular train stops provided many needed goods from far away locations, as well as a way to move farm crops to markets where they could be sold for a profit.
History has it that Richard Warren Sears, a railroad station agent in Minnesota, received a large shipment of watches from a Chicago jeweler, which were unwanted by a local jeweler. Sears purchased them himself, sold the watches for a tidy profit to other station agents up and down the line, and then ordered more for resale. Sears would later partner with Alvah Roebuck, to create Sears, Roebuck and Company.
Time became a valuable commodity. Trains ran on schedules. If a trader wasn’t on time to meet the train, he missed an opportunity to buy or sell goods. Time became money. People on the prairies could no longer look to the height of the sun in the sky to determine the time of day. They needed more precise time-keeping methods, such as watches and clocks, so they wouldn’t end up missing the train.
Time and money have definable traits. Time has numerical units. It can be tied to an exchange rate, and in doing so, it becomes valuable. Money also has units. As a commodity, it can be exchanged for a certain amount of time, goods or services. We aren’t at choice about money. We need it for survival as we live in complex societies. When people save it, it becomes an object. When it is scarce, people want more. Money can offer a sense of security.
In my work, time is definitely money. I bill my services by the hour. In fact, our agency bills in 15-minute increments. (Some law firms bill in six-minute increments.) When friends or associates ask how our firm makes money, I tell them that we sell hours. There’s an old saying that successful people do things other people don’t like to do. Our philosophy is a bit broader. We exchange creative services for money from clients who don’t have the expertise to do the things we do, don’t like to do the tasks we do, or don’t have the time to do them. They can gain time by exchanging money for it. Which leads to another metaphor – “money is time.”
Years ago, I read a business advisor’s advice to pay for services you can do yourself when you can buy them at a lower hourly rate than you charge for your services. Then you are saving the value of your time. For instance, if you can hire someone to clean your house for $10 an hour, and you bill your services at $75 an hour, then you are buying time. Money becomes time. You can fritter away the time or invest it in more money making.
Time is one commodity that everyone has an equal amount of. Whether wealthy or poor, everyone has the exact same amount of time. It’s how we choose to spend it. Time, like money, is spendable.
Faulkner, who has made a living out of studying metaphors, says that when you shift your metaphor about money to “energy,” then you suddenly seem to have more of it. So if we reverse the metaphor to “energy is money,” that gives a new way to look at being more successful in our businesses. If we put more energy into our work, we’ll likely be rewarded with more money.
What are your metaphors for time, money or energy? Do they support you in your daily business activities? If your metaphor is the old “Money is the root of all evil,” then it may be time to find one that is more positive and supportive to demonstrating success in business.
Continue the blog and share how your metaphors are supporting you or may be holding you back. As Charles Faulkner reminds us, “We can’t not think metaphorically.” Choose your metaphors consciously.
–Ralph Yearick
