I think at the core of anything valuable is an asset.

Something that is valuable, in and of itself, regardless of who owns it.

In our life, we have the opportunity to create value in the world. Many of us do so by creating value for our employer in exchange for time. We trade our time purely for money so that the entrepreneur building the company can benefit from the asset we create.

But if you're willing to take on a reasonable amount of risk, accept more holistic responsibility, and play your cards right, you can instead be the owner of the assets you create instead of simply being a cog trading away the most valuable output of your work (the assets).

When you create an asset for a company, you are producing value beyond yourself. The company finds your work valuable, but has purchased it at a severe discount. They've paid a one-time cost for your time, but will continue to use your output repeatedly throughout the course of the asset's life. The business always wins if it knows what assets it needs.

I've made it a personal mantra of mine to create assets whenever possible instead of trading my time for money.

This doesn't come for free, as I need to put in extra effort outside of normal working hours, and I can't immediately transition into full-time entrepreneurship since I have mouths to feed.

But I can certainly get started on the path of being a creative – someone that creates assets beyond themselves – regardless of the situation I'm in.