Thank your lucky stars that you live in an era in which it is taken for granted that youll have a lot of jobs in your career.

I say this because youll get a chance to be influenced by a number of managers and business owners, and each one has lessons to give. One of my early bosses was a graduate of the University of Chicago, a philosophy major, no less, and his insights, especially into human behavior, were a treat.

One day, we were chatting and he said, Gary, do you know how to make an average salesman good, and a good one, great?

Of course, I was clueless. No, Jim, how?

You put him into debt.

Naturally, he supported this stark and unexpected notion with logic.

Salesmen earn what they HAVE to earn, Gary. So, if they have a big monthly nut to crack, lots of payments, theyll sell up to their level of debt.

Maybe I hadnt been paying my own bills long enough to appreciate the magnitude of what he was saying. Also, I was beholden to Abraham Maslows psychology. It presumes we are creatures of positive motivationwe achieve because we want to.

Nonsense, Jim retorted, after I offered this view. Then, he broke into a Disney chant that played off of the song, High, ho, high ho, its off to work we go, originally sung by the seven dwarves.

Thats the way the movie sings it, he said. But the real lyrics are, I owe, I owe, so its off to work I go!

I still didnt buy the idea, but through the years, Ive come to see its validity.

Generally speaking, Ive earned, minimally, what I had to earn, what my lifestyle required. Knowing this, I would occasionally stretch to buy a better car or house, figuring somehow, Ill find a way to pay for it.

Granted, its a backwards way of raising ones aspiration level, but it works.

Jim left me that day with this to ponder:

Gary, maybe your monthly payments arent high enough!