Development Saved is Development Earned

Tony Weaver leads portfolio management transformation for DSW, Inc and has been a PMP-certified project manager for eight years.

  Career Development   Communications Management   Leadership  

“A penny saved is a penny earned.” Smart words from Benjamin Franklin. Essentially, there are two ways to increase your wealth: earn a new penny, or choose not to spend a penny you already have.

Smart budgeting says that it is much easier to keep money you have than to earn more. The easiest way to save money is to eliminate those small, recurring expenses that you forget about each day--that morning latte, regular ATM fees and so forth. Those habitual expenses are where you fail to save your money, and saving is easier than earning…so voila, you aren’t rich!

But, this is not an article about personal finance; it is about your personal and professional development. That said, this exact same premise applies to your growth and development.

When people think of development, they normally think about learning new skills, building relationships, working on stretch assignments and other tasks. These are all important things for us to do to develop professional selves, our credibility, our authority and our careers. But, these are “a penny earned” techniques and won’t make us “rich.”

Equally as important to our development are “penny saved” techniques. Those little things we do that undermine our own development. These can be the words we choose, our actions or even how we think.

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