What experiences are the most valuable for an entrepreneur or employee? Hint: its not SEO

[BakerStreet]

Want to double your salary? Want to increase your odds of making it big with a business? Here are experiences you'll need to do well. People with this under their belt are better off in the capitalist world.

• Company building
  • As an employee: people who have experience hiring and growing a team get senior level salaries.
  • As an entrepreneur: entrepreneurs who know how to build a company, hire, and keep good employees engaged and motivated succeed, whether it be as an agency or tech company or whatever else.
  • How to improve: If you are an employee, seek opportunities to get involved in hiring people and growing a team. It is a quick way to move up from entry or mid-level to senior level. It is also valuable experience for when you have your own company.
• Finance
  • As an employee: you need to know what moves the profit needle in the company to negotiate for a higher salary.
  • As an entrepeneur: you need to know your sources of capital (debt or equity) and how to report RoC to investors.
  • How to improve: take a finance class taught by someone who knows math. Read The Intelligent Investor.
• Sales and Pitching
  • As an employee: listen to what people say, pracitce selling to them, so that you get what you want.
  • As an entrepeneur: listen to what people say, pracitce selling to them, so that you get what you want. Practice pitching.
  • How to improve: you just need practice here and you need to listen to what people say. Value is subjective so you need to understand your customer.
• Office politics:
  • As an employee: get what you want, by knowing office politics.
  • As an entrepreneur: get what you want, by knowing office politics.
  • How to improve: Read The Secret of Winning at Office Politics.

If you set out to cultivate these expereinces, you'll improve your skills in these areas. Your first experience in pitching might be terrible, but 10 experiences later, you'll be proficient, if you learn from your mistakes. Keep at it and you'll be competent in a year. There's no secrets here. Anyone can do these things.

Anything else I'm missing? Let me know.