stop selling your time—start selling your value

Good morning,

Currently sipping on my cafecito and thinking about something important.

This isn’t one of those “quit your 9-5” posts or a rant about corporate life. It’s more of a reminder about how we measure our worth.

Most of us are taught to think of income in terms of how much our time is worth. We set an hourly rate for ourselves based on what we were paid in our last job. And to be fair—that’s a decent starting point, especially when you’re applying somewhere new or thinking of launching a business.

But if you want to grow, you’ve got to eventually make the switch from time-based thinking to value-based thinking.

When I first started my side hustle, I remember charging people based on my old hourly rate—something like $40–$50 an hour. That was purely based on the logic that it’s what my previous employer was willing to pay me.

But I quickly realized I was helping people make thousands or simplify parts of their life that had real, lasting impact financially. And that had nothing to do with how long it took me. This is KEY!

Here’s a way to think about it:

No one asks Picasso how long it took him to sketch something on a napkin. They pay for the lifetime of skill and experience behind that one drawing.

Same goes for you.

If you can save someone 100+ hours—or generate thousands in returns—and it only takes you 2 hours to do it? That’s not $100 of value. That’s leverage.

So here’s something to reflect on today:

If you stopped thinking in hourly terms…

What would your work actually be worth?

Because the real goal isn’t just to make more money.

It’s to unchain your time.

And thinking in terms of value is the first step toward that kind of freedom.

LFG,

Gabriel |

wallstreetpapi