Learn to read and analyze a company's balance sheet

If there's one rule I have always taken too seriously and to the extreme, it's Robert Greene's number one rule, "Never Outshine the master", so apart from figuring out that my day job wasn't worth it, I also realized I was on the verge of breaking that rule.

The company I worked for had similar payment options to Hive. The difference was that my payment was divided into three, I took one part, the office took one part, and my boss took the other part.

When the manager (one of her children) explained this to me, I could see that she was worried I may not like those terms and conditions. But Hive had already taught me that working in a commission-based environment is better than a fixed paycheck. So I gladly agreed.

I am a hardworking girl. I am sure you can tell by now. It didn't take long for me to catch up with the office's operations and before they knew what was happening, I was tackling all the jobs that came to my desk without breaking a sweat.

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I already had 5+ years of working experience in that ICT field, so remembering every detail of the job only took a couple of days. You know when I remember the last two months of my life, I concluded that my boss was clearly not ready for a hardworking girl who knew the job well. She was probably hoping I'll be lazy and some of the jobs will be boycotted to her children.

Nothing prepared her for me being able to finish close to 10k words of typing in a day or two. Neither was she prepared for me to be able to finish typing long pages of work as soon as the customer demands it. What happened was that, the more I worked, the more I smiled because I knew, going by the office rule, I was going home with a fat paycheck.

During the two months, I spent there, I can tell you that the paycheck was fat enough to hold me back from spending a huge part of my Hive rewards. And that felt good because I suddenly had my Hive rewards tickle up so I can pay my debt while the job pays for my daily bills.

The fact that I kept working hard and making more money did not please my boss. She had four children that knew the job but were always lazy and most times boycotted the jobs for me. There was only one of her children who was passionate about helping out in the office, the rest always found an excuse to not do anything. And I wasn't bothered because, for every no they said to a prospective job, I got the chance to increase how much I'll be receiving by month end.

But when I noticed my boss was displeased but couldn't say it outrightly, I knew it was time to go. So, apart from the stress, and everything else I missed out on Hive as a result of that job, I had this part to deal with. I barely ever wanted to displease her. So I disappeared on her.
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Being someone who is financially inclined, I could tell even without looking at the spreadsheet that if I kept collecting all of the jobs and getting my fair share, her business will be struggling and so will the resources to carter for her children. Don't ask me about her husband, that's a complete story for another day.

I knew her business wasn't sustaining. The fact that she had a job at the University was the only reason her business survived that long. So she had the opportunity to always pump money into the business through her school paycheck while putting on a show for the rest of the world to feel she was on top of the world (no offense).

Every person I talked to always felt my office was a competition and we were because we had able hands. But what these people weren't seeing was that my boss was just a paycheck away from breaking down financially.

It would have been fair if her children contributed by taking up some of the jobs because some of that money would have gone to her. But everything is fair in business, right? Yes, so I didn't mind when they failed to do their part.

I worked because the customers were always there to be catered for. I did wish I dared to tell her what happens when she goes to work and how it's affecting her business. But it was a family business, and the human who recommended me had already warned that I shouldn't interfere with their family saga. So I heeded that advice and walked away instead.

My boss may not be the only person who isn't clearly having our business financial statements and balance sheets in check. She may not be the only one who can't separate her business money from personal and family bills. A lot of us are guilty. We haven't allowed ourselves to sit back and come to terms with the fact that if something happens to the root, where our funding pump is, our business will go down the drain.

It is therefore important that one takes cognizant of their financial statements whether it's business or personal. Of course, this is one of the reasons you are often advised to learn how to read a company's balance sheet. Learn to separate their assets from their liabilities and see if they are worth investing in or not.