I’ve listed this rule here because it is closely akin to not jumping off the mountain. What this rule is about is paying your dues early. There seems to be a pattern in life that the people who work very hard early are compensated much greater than are those who do the equivalent amount of work, but do it later in life. I’ll have to use an example to illustrate. Let’s call on Jill.
Okay. Jill has been a very good student her whole life. After a fantastic college career, she decides to go right into graduate school. By the time she is twenty-eight, she is a fairly well respected architect, and is making enough money that she only has to work about thirty hours a week. This works out great because it gives her time to stay home with her kids. She couldn’t be happier.
Joe, on the other hand, never really thought school was that important. “Why do I need to learn how to divide fractions?” he would complain. When high school was over, he was more than happy to take a minimum wage job and live off the good graces of his parents. But after a few years, his parents need some help with money and they decide to charge rent. Joe decides this is bogus and finds a tiny apartment. He works harder and has a little bit of money. He gets married and has a family. He and his wife both have to work full time to make ends meet, so the kids have to go to day care close to sixty hours a week. Five years later, one of Joe’s kids is having serious problems in school, and another is fighting all the time….
Well, you can see the point. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with the path Joe took, but if he paid his dues earlier, it would have made his life much easier. You see, life is back-loaded. What I mean by that is life usually starts out about as easy as it’s going to get. You have mom and dad to take care of things for you. As you get older, there are more responsibilities added to until one day you look around and realize you are swamped. Even if you wanted to go back to school, there just isn’t enough time. If you work hard early in life, you will be ahead of the game when the more serious responsibilities start to add up. Another thing to consider is that you will have more physical energy when you’re young to tackle hard work. It seems to me that if you pay your dues early on, the price is much less than if you wait. If you pay your dues late, life can extract an awesome toll.
