What has helped me tremendously in my personal and professional life is developing and having the right skills to adapt to different environments. I was born in Kathmandu (Nepal) and have lived in Cairo (Egypt), New York City (US) and Amsterdam (The Netherlands). What has worked for me is having skills that are transferable, adaptive and suited to best leverage the opportunities available in each of the above cities. Over the course of the next few weeks, I will talk about the different skill sets that are very valuable to have based on my experiences so far. These skills can also help you profoundly no matter where you are currently or headed to in the near future.
Welcome to the Skills blog series-
Being financially savvy
One of the first jobs I had as a teenager was working at a magazine store. I was a cashier and worked every Saturday for most of my weekends. Having some pocket change allowed me to go to the movies, buy a few things and hang out with my friends. I learned the real value of money and had earned it from standing 6 to 8 hours to ring customers at the counter. My lunch options were McDonald’s, Subway or takeout Chinese food-things you could get for less than $5. I valued each dollar I earned and the work boosted my self esteem and confidence. For the most part of my high school, college and a short period after college, I held jobs in retail customer service and was standing 7 to 8 hours for them. Now I work on a laptop and spent most of my working hours sitting down. It’s nothing compared to the long hours spent standing, greeting and servicing customers.
Having a job even if its part-time teaches you a lot about money. You start to value it more when you have earned it and won’t spend it carelessly. It’s important to understand the value of money at an early age and I’m glad that I had part-time jobs when I was in high school. Those earlier work experiences were instrumental in helping me understand the value of hard work, money and made me financially savvy.
Key takeaways:
-Work somewhere (full time, part time, internship, volunteer doesn’t matter, just start)
-Savor the earning (feel the hard work and sweat that you put into making that first earning)
Image source: Think New Asia