I hate words like failure, laziness, corruption, drunkenness and homosexuality... the list is long. But the word I hate most is ‘stagnant’. I hate it with passion. 

Scientists tell us that water begins to smell, kills life, and becomes a source of disease if it remains stagnant for a long time. In the same way, if a person remains stuck in one place, level or position, he or she begins to feel bored, helpless, insignificant, and sometimes useless or even lifeless. 

For the employed, why should others always be given promotions and salary increments, except you? Why should other people doing a similar business like yours make profit while you continue sinking into losses? Why should other people’s marriages get better while yours gets worse day by day?

I always have a problem every time I find that someone has been earning the same amount of money throughout the year, yet his/her expenditure is definitely increasing. This was one of the reasons I chose to join business at a young age; I wanted to be in a state where I would have the power to increase my income exponentially.

For those who might not be aware of what exponential income is, in simple terms, it is the income that has ability to multiply. For instance, when you have a business, the more efforts you put into the quality of the product, service delivery, customer care, marketing, capacity-building for your staff and market research, the more income you are likely to earn. You could even put in much effort in a given month and triple the previous months’ income.

On the other hand, the opposite is linear income. This is the kind of income that you might increase by addition, not multiplication. In other words, it either remains the same, or grows at a very small rate. For instance even if an employee triples his/her efforts at work, I doubt that the boss can triple the pay, most probably he/she would receive a 5 or 10% salary increment.

If you are employed, I am not here to scare you. You can take advantage of that job to increase your income. First, a job gives you security, so you are assured of a predictable income at the end of every month. Secondly, a job gives you skills and experience; if you utilise that opportunity, everyday you can learn something new that can easily be converted into money. Thirdly, a job gives you contacts; it is a platform to network with people and each person you know is equivalent to money.

Your task in 2014 is to look for business ideas that do not clash with your job so that you can increase your income. Don’t tell me you have no time because most jobs need 8-9 hours from your, yet a day has 24 hours. You can do personal productive work in about 5 more hours, which you can spread to morning before going to your job and in the evening after leaving your job. You can purpose to change the course of your life in 2014 by setting radical goals that will push you to step forward. 

I hate staying at the same level – financially, spiritually, in career or in any other aspect of life. Every day, I always want to take a step away from where I am towards where I want to be. My guiding principles is that today I must achieve better results than yesterday’s, and tomorrow I should achieve results that are better than today’s. I challenge you to adopt the same principle so that your 2014 is much better than your 2013. 

Bake is the MD WORLD OF INSPIRATION & Founder, AUTHORS’ FORUM – +256-704666851