A few months ago, we promoted one of our team members to “The General” position and empowered him to make important decisions that would help the business grow. I believed in him. I saw his potential. But after three months, I wasn’t impressed with his performance.
So, while having a conversation with him and the Chief, I wanted to understand his challenges, his struggles, and why he wasn’t stepping up. He opened up to us and said something that hit me hard.
He said some of the team members wouldn’t listen to him because he is not the one paying their salaries. He told us that in his side business, the people who work for him respect his instructions because he is the one who pays them. But here at Pamtech, he felt like he had no authority because, in his mind, he was just another worker, not the one paying salaries.
At first, I smiled because I knew he had a mindset problem. He was seeing things the wrong way. So, I asked him a few simple questions.
“Since taking this new position, what initiatives have you implemented?”
He told us about some initiatives he had introduced that made money for the company.
“How much revenue has that brought in?”
He mentioned the amount, and it was in millions of naira.
“Did that revenue come with profit?”
He answered yes.
“And what did we use part of that profit for? Did I put it inside my pocket?”
He said, “We paid salaries and reinvested the remaining back into the business.”
Then I looked him straight in the eyes and said, “So who paid them?”
There was silence.
At that moment, his entire mindset shifted. He had been responsible for making money to pay his team members all along, but he didn’t see himself as the one paying them. I could feel that he broke down in tears in his heart. He had lived with a salary taker mindset for so long that he never realized he was now actually a salary maker.
See eeh, this is what I tell people all the time. The way you see yourself in a business determines how you act.
A salary taker believes they are just there to work and get paid. They don’t feel responsible for growth, for revenue, or for decisions.
A salary maker understands that every action they take affects the business, the revenue, and ultimately the salaries of their colleagues.
So, my team member had limited himself because he thought he wasn’t in charge. But when he realized he was already making money that paid salaries, he stepped into ownership.
Now, he no longer saw himself as just an employee; he saw himself as part of the business. He didn’t just expect people to listen to him; rather, he influenced them to work together because he knew their results affected revenue and salaries. He stopped thinking like someone who was just earning and started thinking like someone who was building something bigger.
You see eeh, most business owners and leaders fail to help their team members understand that they are also entrepreneurs within the business. If you have a team, don’t just let them take salaries. Please help them see that they are part of making and paying salaries. Let them understand that every action they take affects revenue, and the money they help the business generate goes back into the company. So they are wealth creators.
I am saying this because when people start seeing themselves as owners, they start working like owners.
I am the Billionaire Mechanic, and I am asking you: Are you a salary taker or a salary maker?
Remember, Takers Wait, Makers Create.