Keep investing in your personal and professional development and in your power to produce solutions to problems, and you will always have a source of economic security. Your security does not come from your job or from the patronage of other people; it comes from your ability to meet needs and solve problems. Keep investing in those abilities, and you will have endless opportunities. - Stephen R. Covey. “The 8th Habit”

The message behind this quote is perhaps the most valuable advice I ever received as a knowledge worker, and it has completely changed the direction of my career. I first encountered this advice in mid-2009 when I was reading Stephen R. Covey’s earlier book to The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to which puts it like this:

Our most important financial asset is our own capacity to earn. If we don’t continually invest in improving our own production capability, we severely limit our options. We’re locked into our present situation, running scared of our corporation or our boss’s opinion of us, economically dependent and defensive. Again, it simply isn’t effective. - Stephen R. Covey. “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”