When I ask the classes I teach， “How many of you can cook a better hamburger than McDonald’s？” almost all the students raise their hands. I then ask. “So if most of you can cook a better hamburger， how can McDonald’s make more money than you？” The answer is obvious： McDonald’s is excellent at business systems. The reason so many talented people are poor is because they focus on building a better hamburger and know little or nothing about business systems. The world is filled with talented poor people. All too often， they’re poor or struggle financially or earn less than they are capable of， not because of what they know but because of what they do not know. They focus on perfecting their skills at building a better hamburger rather than the skills of selling and delivering the hamburger.
世上到處都是聰明靈巧、頗具才幹、學富五車或極具天賦的人，我們每天都會遇到他們。幾天前，我的汽車出了一點毛病。我把它開到汽車修理廠，一個年輕的機械工隻用了幾分鍾就把它修好了。他隻是聽了聽發動機的聲音就知道毛病出在哪裏，這讓我感到很吃驚。但可悲的是，隻有非凡的才華是遠遠不夠的。
我時常感到震驚，為何擁有才華的人的收入都少得可憐。一天，我聽說僅有不到5％的美國人年收入超過10萬美元。一個對藥品貿易相當熟悉的商務顧問曾這樣告訴我：很多醫生、牙醫和按摩師還在為生計而奔波。在這之前，我一直認為隻要他們從校園走出來，就會有大把大把的鈔票流入他們的口袋。“他們距離發大財還少一項技能。”這是這個商務顧問告訴我的一句話。它的意思是，大多數人隻有通過學習並多掌握一項技能，他們的收入才可能呈指數倍增長。之前我曾經說過，財商是綜合了會計、投資、市場營銷和法律方麵的能力。把這四種專業技能綜合在一起，以錢生錢就會變得容易一些。一提到錢，大多數人知道的唯一技巧，就是努力工作。