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BUSINESS



"Only you can

decide if your

career is making a

profit or loss"

of your life) outweigh your career's • Are you investing in your ability to • loss of meaning and purpose,

financial and growth potential, then advocate for yourself and earning a • having a limited positive impact on the

perhaps your career's gross profit needs voice at the table or do you cost yourself world,
thorough attention. opportunities by remaining quiet? • compromised relationships with family
• Are you investing time in understanding and friends.
THE OPERATING PROFIT OF your personal value proposition, working
YOU PTY LTD to and building on your strengths, or are For a long time, I think I looked at the
The operating expenses of a company are you costing yourself a strong personal gross profit of my career and convinced

items like training costs, hardware and brand and being influenced rather than myself that a good salary and the
software, rent, and anything else that is being influential? opportunity to expand my portfolio of

not directly attributed to the cost of goods • Are you investing time to reflect on your experiences was enough. And for a long
sold. Some operational costs are a wise personal career goals and ambitions and time it was enough!
investment while others can be frivolous connect with what's important to you
and ill thought out. or do you cost yourself time and money But at some point when I started to

pursuing what others, (perhaps with all examine my operating profit and ¬finally

What are your career operating expenses? the good intentions in the world), think looked at my career net profit, I realised

How are they adding or stripping away you should study or do? that, even though I might have had a very
value from your overall bottom line? comfortable gross profit, by the time I got

NET PROFIT OF YOU PTY LTD to the net profit, I was making a loss.

My view is that your operating expenses What is the equivalent of tax in the business

are choices that you make about where you of being you? What erodes your net profit? Only you can decide if your career is

invest your time and money in your career: How high are the taxes in your career? making a profit or loss. If you are truly
• Are you investing in building managing your career as a business,
relationships and your personal board From my perspective, career tax includes: don't make the mistake of solely looking

of directors, or do you cost yourself the • an unconstructive level of stress, at profitability from a gross profit

advantage of a diversity of perspectives • the real potential for burnout, perspective. Consider the net profit and
and a network that you can leverage when • misalignment between personal and decide whether what you’re doing is
you need to? company values, consistent with your goals.
To connect with Briony Liber, visit her website: www.brionyliber.com.
28 Kyalami Estates • CONNECT • Issue 2 • 2019 29