Cases in finance – Episode 14: We are all selling time; the only question is the price

By Enock Yeboah-Mensah

“When you increase your ability to earn, you increase the value of your time. You learn more. You sharpen your skills. You become harder to replace. You stop begging for pay increases and start commanding value.”E.Y. Mensah

At about 2:00 a.m., the Accra Sports Stadium finally began to empty. The December concert had delivered everything it promised: music, lights, adrenaline, and one thing it didn’t: an easy way home.

Castle Road was locked in a stubborn traffic jam, so Godfred turned the wheel toward Osu Oxford Street, hoping to escape the gridlock. Princess sat quietly beside him. She was his longtime university friend, someone he respected deeply, and he was glad she had accepted his invitation to the concert.

As they rolled slowly through Oxford Street, the night took on a strange intensity. The place was unusually alive, more crowded than a typical weekday afternoon. Music blared from open bars, engines idled impatiently, and groups of lovely ladies lined the sidewalks. Again and again, the ladies called out to Godfred. Some waved. Others smiled knowingly, signaling for him to stop. After the third or fourth call-out, Princess’s silence broke;

Princess: (shifting uneasily in her seat) “They are not even ashamed.”

Godfred: (eyes on the road)

Princess: “Selling their bodies for money.”

Godfred: (after a brief pause) “Princess… can I challenge that thought?”

Princess: (turning to him) “How?”

Godfred: “Because what they’re selling isn’t very different from what you and I sell every day.”

Princess: (frowning) “You can’t be serious.”

Godfred: “I am. There is only one product all human beings sell, and that product is time.”

Princess: (silent, attentive)

Godfred: “Think about it. When you work in an office, you’re paid monthly, but really, you’re being paid for hours, days, even years of your life. A lawyer, an engineer, a lecturer, a doctor, they’re not paid because of a title. They’re paid because of how valuable their time has become.”

Princess: (quietly listening as the car inches forward)

Godfred: “Schooling, apprenticeship, professional exams, mentorship, experience, none of these give money directly. They do only one thing: they increase the value of the time you will eventually sell.”

Princess: (looking out the window) “Hmm…”

Godfred: “Even tonight’s concert, did you notice some of the headline artists were paid over half a million US dollars?”

Princess: “For how long?”

Godfred: “About forty-five minutes on stage.”

Princess: (turning sharply toward him) “Forty-five minutes?”

Godfred: “Exactly. That wasn’t payment for singing. That was payment for time; forty-five minutes made valuable by years of training, discipline, branding, sacrifice, and consistency.”

Princess: (thoughtful silence)

Godfred: “So when those women call out on Oxford Street, they’re also selling time. The difference isn’t what is being sold, it’s how much that time is worth and how sustainably it can be sold.”

Princess: (exhaling slowly) “That’s… uncomfortable to think about.”

Godfred: “It should be. Time is the measure of life itself. When we sell time, we’re selling pieces of our lives. The real question isn’t whether we sell time; we all do. The real question is: at what price?”

Princess: (as the road opens up) “So where does dignity come into it?”

Godfred: “That’s where George S. Clason comes in. ‘Increase thy ability to earn.’ He wasn’t talking about greed. He was talking about dignity.”

Princess: “Explain.”

Godfred: “When you increase your ability to earn, you increase the value of your time. You learn more. You sharpen your skills. You become harder to replace. You stop begging for pay increases and start commanding value.”

Princess: (nodding)

Godfred: “Clason said desire must be definite, learning must be continuous, and self-respect must guide your life. When someone improves their craft, pays their debts, plans responsibly, and serves others well, their time naturally becomes more valuable and more expensive.”

Princess: (as Burma Camp comes into view) “So the goal isn’t just to make money…”

Godfred: “No. The goal is to make your time so valuable that you earn more while selling less of your life or at least selling it with pride.”

Princess: (unbuckling her seatbelt) “I don’t think I’ll ever look at work or Oxford Street the same way again.”

Godfred: (smiling) “That’s the point. Once you understand time, you understand wealth.”

Princess: (stepping out, waving) “Good night, philosopher.”

Godfred: “Good night.”

As she disappeared into the quiet of the compound, the truth lingered in the car and the night air: We are all selling time. Wisdom lies in increasing its worth.

7 Steps in Increasing the Value of Your Time

 Define a Clear and Specific Income Goal

The value of your time cannot increase without direction. A vague desire to “earn more” produces weak results, but a clear and measurable goal gives your effort focus and urgency. When you decide exactly how much more your time should earn per month, per year, or per project, you train your mind to identify opportunities that align with that goal. Definite targets turn intention into action and provide a benchmark for progress.

 Commit to Mastery in a Chosen Craft

Time becomes valuable when it is attached to competence that is difficult to replace. Spreading effort across too many skills keeps the value of time low, but deep commitment to a single craft raises it significantly. Mastery requires patience, discipline, and consistency, yet it is this depth that separates high earners from average performers. The market rewards those who can do what others cannot do well.

 Invest in Continuous Learning

Learning is the engine that steadily increases the worth of time. Each new insight, technique, or qualification enhances your ability to solve problems more effectively. Continuous learning ensures that your skills remain relevant as industries evolve. Those who stop learning eventually sell outdated time, while those who keep learning continually raise the price of their future hours.

Increase Productivity, Not Just Effort

Working longer hours does not automatically increase earnings; producing greater value per hour does. Productivity is about focus, efficiency, and quality of output. By refining processes, eliminating distractions, and improving execution, you generate more results within the same amount of time. When your output improves, your time commands higher rewards without exhausting your life.

Surround Yourself with Superior Minds

The value of your time is influenced by the thinking you are exposed to daily. Associating with people who are more skilled, disciplined, and successful accelerates learning and sharpens judgment. Such environments expose you to higher standards, more effective methods, and better opportunities. Over time, your own thinking and earning power rise to match the level of those around you.

Build a Reputation for Reliability and Value

Reputation quietly multiplies the value of time. When people trust your competence and integrity, they are willing to pay more for your involvement and return to you repeatedly. Consistency in delivering quality work builds a personal brand that speaks before you do. A strong reputation reduces the need for persuasion and positions your time as a premium offering.

 Live with Discipline and Self-Respect

Sustained earning power rests on personal discipline and character. Paying debts promptly, living within your means, planning responsibly, and acting honorably create stability and confidence. Self-respect influences how you price your time and how others perceive its worth. Financial growth that is built on discipline endures, while undisciplined success quickly collapses.

The Finance Lens

From a finance perspective, the conversation on Oxford Street exposes a truth often overlooked in personal finance discussions: income is not fundamentally about money; it is about time pricing. In financial markets, assets are valued based on scarcity, risk, and future cash flows. Human labour follows the same logic. The market does not reward effort or intention; it rewards the economic value generated per unit of time.

Education, certifications, experience, and reputation function like capital investments. They require upfront cost, time, money, and sacrifice, but they increase the future cash flow potential of each hour sold. This is why a performer can earn in forty-five minutes what another person earns in years. The difference is not moral; it is financial. One unit of time has been engineered to produce exponentially more value.

Conversely, when time is sold without skill accumulation, scalability, or sustainability, income remains fragile. Low-value time is easily replaceable, poorly priced, and vulnerable to disruption. High-value time, however, benefits from compounding through expertise, networks, and trust. In essence, wealth accumulation is the long-term result of consistently reinvesting in the asset called “you”, until the market willingly pays a premium for your time.

Moment of Clarity

As Godfred drove away from Burma Camp, the night felt quieter, almost reflective. The noise of Oxford Street had faded, but the idea it revealed remained loud and unmistakable: life is not spent in years, but in hours sold. Every career decision, every learning choice, every act of discipline or neglect quietly sets the price of those hours.

The moment of clarity is this: poverty and prosperity are not accidents of fate alone; they are often outcomes of how deliberately or carelessly we increase the value of our time. No one escapes selling time, but wisdom lies in refusing to sell it cheaply.

Dignity is found in ensuring that each hour carries skill, purpose, and self-respect. In the end, the question is not how much money do I want to make? How valuable must I become for the market to pay me more for less of my life? That realization, once understood, changes how you work, how you learn, and how you live.

Discussion Questions

1. Godfred argues that everyone sells time, not just labour or talent. How does viewing your career as the sale of time rather than effort change how you evaluate your current job, pay, and long-term career choices?
2. Where do dignity and personal values fit into the way people price and sell their time? Can increasing the value of one’s time coexist with ethical and social responsibility? Why or why not?
3. Education, skills, and reputation are described as capital investments. Looking at your own life, which investments have increased the value of your time, and which have not delivered the expected return?
4. The case contrasts immediate income with sustainable earning power. What risks arise when individuals prioritize short-term earnings over long-term skill and reputation building?
5. If you were in Princess’s seat that night, what realization about your own use of time would challenge you most and what practical change would you commit to making to increase its value?

Solution to Previous Case (Episode 13) Discussion Questions

1. How does the concept of “golden slavery” change your understanding of financial freedom compared to simply earning and saving money?

The concept of golden slavery reframes financial freedom from an income-based mindset to an ownership-based mindset. Earning and saving alone keep an individual dependent on continuous personal effort; income stops when labor stops, and savings diminish when consumed.

Golden slavery, however, emphasizes owning productive capital that generates income independently of one’s physical presence or effort. Financial freedom, therefore, is not the absence of work but the presence of assets that work on one’s behalf. This shifts the focus from “how much do I earn?” to “how many income-producing assets do I control?”, a far more sustainable and liberating framework.

2. In what ways does treating savings as “raw material” rather than wealth alter how you might manage your own money or capital?

Viewing savings as raw material fundamentally changes financial behavior. Instead of seeing a bank balance as an end goal, savings become a means to production. This mindset encourages intentional capital allocation, disciplined investment, and long-term planning.

It reduces the temptation to consume savings for status or convenience and increases the urgency to deploy funds into productive assets. As a result, money management becomes proactive rather than defensive, with a focus on transformation and multiplication rather than preservation alone.

3. What strategies can you employ to ensure that your investments not only generate income for you today, but also continue to benefit future generations?

To ensure intergenerational impact, investments must prioritize durability, scalability, and governance. Key strategies include reinvesting returns rather than consuming them, diversifying across asset classes and income streams, and favoring investments with long-term relevance rather than short-term speculation.

Additionally, proper documentation, estate planning, and financial education for heirs are critical. When investments are structured to outlive their original owner and beneficiaries understand how to manage them, wealth evolves from personal success into a lasting legacy.

4. Theocharis emphasizes investing only where you understand the business. How do knowledge, due diligence, and discipline play a role in building a sustainable army of golden slaves?

Knowledge acts as the manager of golden slaves. Without understanding, capital is easily misallocated, exposed to fraud, or placed in ventures with unsustainable economics. Due diligence ensures that investments are grounded in real value creation, not promises or hype.

Discipline, meanwhile, prevents emotional decision-making, premature consumption of returns, and reckless risk-taking. Together, these elements reduce avoidable losses and increase the probability that investments will compound steadily over time. A sustainable army of golden slaves is built not by luck, but by informed, patient, and disciplined capital deployment.

5. Reflect on your current spending and investment habits: how much of your income is allowed to “die” through consumption, and how much is actively put to work to generate future financial independence?

This question forces an honest audit of financial priorities. Consumption provides immediate satisfaction but permanently ends money’s productive journey. Investment, by contrast, delays gratification in exchange for future autonomy.

A critical solution is intentional budgeting that clearly separates consumption from capital formation, ensuring that a meaningful portion of income is consistently redirected toward income-generating assets. Over time, increasing the share of income that is invested rather than consumed accelerates the transition from dependency on labor to control over income streams, marking real progress toward financial independence.

The author is a Strategy, Leadership and Finance Enthusiast, an Mphil Finance graduate of the University of Ghana Business School, a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana and a part-time lecturer at the UGBS.

Email: [email protected]

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