Economic Wisdom to Apply in Your Twenties

Chapter 47

Chapter 6, Section 3 Remember: You are not human resources, you are human capital
Xiaocheng and Xiaoqian are employed by the same clothing company and receive the same salary in the same position.However, after working for a period of time, Xiao Cheng Qingyun went straight up, got promotion and salary increase, but Xiao Qian was still standing still, making no progress.Xiaoqian was puzzled, so he went to the boss to ask what happened.

"Little Qian," said the boss, "now you go to the clothing market to see what is selling best this morning?"

After a while, Xiaoqian came back from the market and reported to the boss: "Now the suits are selling well."

"What's the wholesale price?" the boss asked again.

Xiaoqian didn't know, so he hurried to the market again and told the boss, "120 yuan a set."

"How many dealers want the goods?" The boss continued to ask him.

"You didn't ask me to inquire!" Xiaoqian felt a little wronged.

"Well," the boss went on, "now you sit by and watch what other people do."

So, the boss called Xiao Cheng and told him, "Xiao Cheng, go to the market now and see the sales of clothes today."

Xiao Cheng also came back from the market soon, and reported to the boss: "The sales of suits are relatively large today. The wholesale price of each suit is 120 yuan. There are 50 companies that want goods, and each wants 160 sets on average. I also brought a few suits. Distributors, please negotiate an order contract with them."

The boss turned to Xiaoqian and said, "Now you know why Xiaocheng's salary is higher than yours?"

After reading this story, do you ask yourself whether your performance at work is like Xiao Cheng, or is it more like Xiao Qian?
Both Xiaoqian and Xiaocheng in the story are human resources, and Xiaocheng’s human capital can obviously bring more market returns to the boss than Qian Xiaoqian’s human capital.The return on human capital is the investment signal of human capital.Simply put, the boss can only bring him greater benefits if he hires more talents like Xiao Cheng.

The theory of human capital was discovered and founded by American economist Theodore Schultz, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1979.Human capital refers to one of the quality factors such as knowledge, skills, experience and health that are accumulated in people through education, training and "learning by doing", which are scarce, can be put into production and can generate value-added. and.Human capital, like other capitals, has become a means to obtain economic and non-economic benefits.

With the strengthening of competition, the role of human capital is becoming more and more obvious.Schultz once said that the improvement of human capital such as people's knowledge, ability, and health contributes far more to economic growth than the increase in material and labor force.For example, since Jack Welch, the most respected CEO of General Motors in the United States, took over General Motors in 1981, in a short period of 20 years, through the implementation of a series of human capital management and competition reforms, General Motors, a century-old company, has been rebuilt. With new vitality, the company's ranking has also risen from the 10th in the world to the 2nd in the world, becoming the most competitive multinational company in the world.

It is impossible for young people in their twenties to have the mature thinking and vision like "Welch". So, what is our capital?

In fact, youth, health, wisdom... These resources that are difficult to exchange for money are our precious capital.At the same time, your unique personality, experience, talent, specialty or profession are the factors that make him have an advantage over others. There is no uniform standard for these capitals, but the advantages they occupy are measured relative to specific jobs.

Just because we are still young, when we first enter the society, we need to understand the needs of the job position before we can judge how much your advantages are worth when facing such a position.Therefore, we in our twenties should establish awareness of "human capital" and make reasonable investments in our human capital, such as receiving higher education and acquiring more practical skills.At the same time, we must continue to explore our inner potential, find a stage suitable for ourselves, and transform human capital into real value, so as to finally make our career more brilliant.

Wisdom Trivia: How to Invest in Human Capital

1. Determine a correct direction.In general, the direction of our work is determined by the profession.But the reality is that many people cannot choose a job completely according to the major they have studied after graduation.Below this kind of circumstance, we need to consider seriously, choose the professional position that suits oneself.

2. Identify your own advantages.Identify your abilities and see your strengths and weaknesses.Through self-analysis and selection based on past experience, infer possible future work directions and opportunities.

3. To grasp the overall situation.Overall analysis from three aspects: social analysis, organizational analysis, and interpersonal relationship analysis.Social analysis includes the current social, political, and economic development trends, the distribution of hot social occupations and demand status; organizational analysis is to seek common ground between yourself and the organization and better integrate into the organization after you have a detailed understanding of the organization; interpersonal relationship The analysis focuses on who will interact with and how to get along in the process of personal career development.

(End of this chapter)