By David Lund
When it comes to investing in oneself many times people overlook the outcome and instead concentrate on the up-front cost. When we look at the opportunity to improve our own personal prosperity, we need to see the full picture. We need to realize in life we have a window that opens and closes on our career and its fortunes. It reminds me of a line from Shakespeare:
“There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.
Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat.
And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.”
It is a proven fact that if you want to have a successful and prosperous career in hospitality you need to know your numbers. The owner is not interested in your guest service skills and your ability to manage your colleagues. All they want to know and talk to you about is how much money you are going to make for them. Period, full stop. So, if you want to rise to the top you need to get your money mojo happening now!
So how do you get these skills? There are only two places you can find your ability to confidently speak to the finances in your hotel. One, you have learned the hard way, by jumping into the deep end and wrestling these concepts and all they mean to the ground. You have courageously fought your way through the maze of mistakes and embarrassments to come out the other side a winner. Or, two. You can hire me.
When you hire me for a 1-1 mentorship it is going to cost you $5,000. That is a lot of dough. But let’s look at the ROI before we move on too fast. Remember, the numbers are important.
Like I said in the opening paragraph the window on your career opens and closes and it goes like this. You are currently 35 years old. You are a department manager in the hotel, and you make $70,000 per year. You plan on working until age 65. The GM at that same hotel makes $200,000 a year. That’s a $130,000 difference. This is the window opening to your potential. Into the window we take the difference and multiply it by 30. Quickly now… What’s the math on that?
It’s $5,000,000 – Yes, that is right, it is FIVE MILLION DOLLARS.
That is what is possible with financial leadership skills in the uber-competitive world of hospitality today.
This quote from Karl Urban sums it up pretty well:
“My philosophy is whatever you do, you’ve got to invest in yourself. If you don’t, there are a lot of people out there that will get the job because they’re more prepared than you.”
I know many people who have come and gone from hospitality and in many instances, they left without and because they did not have financial skills.
That means careers were not fulfilled.
That also means people left money on the table.
For all of you who do not want to be one of those individuals in the future remember this, you still have the same two choices to get what you need. Both work if you are willing to make the sacrifice and the commitment.
