Luigi was furious, “I hate this job, Mario! Either you give me a raise or I will quit!”

 Luigi was furious, “I hate this job, Mario! Either you give me a raise or I will quit!”

“Calm down, Luigi. Why are you so mad?” asked Mario.

“I work hard and you don’t pay me enough!”

“Ok, calm down, let’s find a solution before your emotions get you into trouble.”

Luigi took a deep breath and sat down, “OK, what do you suggest, Boss?”

“Let's first understand the root of the problem. Tell me, why do you get paid here at the arcade?”

“I sell tokens to the customers. I work eight hours per day, I hardly ever see you here and you make more than me! That’s not fair!”

“Luigi, I don’t mean to be rude. Let me explain how this works. How difficult is your job?”

“Not much.”

“How many people can do your job?”

“Well,” Luigi paused, “many, I guess.”

“Could I buy a self-service token machine to do your job?”

“Yes, I’ve seen those before,” answered Luigi.

“My friend,” Mario patiently explained, “when we have a job, we get compensated for the value our work delivers to the world. I appreciate your work, and we will renegotiate an increase, but we've got to find ways for you to deliver more value to your work. This cashier position is not worth much more than what you are compensated for.”

“So, if I quit, you don’t care?”

“I do care for you my friend, but your position can easily be replaced by someone else. If you want to make more money, you need to increase your delivered value, in anything you do.”

“Then why do you make so much money if you’re NOT doing much work?”

“Do you see all these customers?” Mario pointed to the group of people playing video games. “Each time a customer plays a video game, he or she receives value from me — even if I’m NOT present or actively working at the arcade. The more customers the business gets, the more value I deliver to the world, which means I make more money. I don’t sell time, I sell fun.”

“So, Mario, do you think entrepreneurship is the best way to escape poverty?”

“Yes, because if we get it right, entrepreneurship allows us to scale our delivered value to the world. Entrepreneurs don’t make money linearly, they are not tied to the paycheck formula to increase their income.”

“Can you explain?”

“A paycheck is equal to the skill we deliver to the job multiplied by the hours of work we actually work. (Paycheck = (Skill x Time)).”

“Ohh, I understand how I’m limited by only two variables for increasing my income. Either I increase my skill or increase the number of hours worked.”

“Correct, Luigi! No worries. We will continue to learn about this to help you break the time barrier. Rule #1: NEVER stop learning!”

- Hector Quintanilla