Many people are still alive thanks to the care of a good nurse.
In most developed countries, nurses will play a crucial role in our lives from cradle to grave and many times in between.
They may not get the kudos and pay of doctors – but ultimately they’re the ones who make sure patients are cared for, take their pills, get their injections and get better.
Yet a senior nurse in the UK earns around £35,000 a year ($55,000).
But this pales in comparison to what sports personalities can make. Understanding why that’s the case provides a valuable insight as to why some entrepreneurs become so successful.
The Forbes list of the world’s 100 highest paid athletes sees boxer Floyd Mayweather weigh in with earnings of $300 million last year.
Number 100 on the list, basketball player James Harden made a more modest $18.8 million – but you could still hire a heck of a lot of nurses and even quite a few doctors for that.
Even moderately successful athletes can make far more money than nurses.
Is that fair?
Nurses save lives. Sports celebrities merely entertain.
You could make all kinds of moral arguments about this – maybe even question society’s values. All of which is very subjective
Indeed, a survey in the UK back in 2010 found that most respondents thought football (soccer) players earned too much – but still believed they deserved to make far more than a nurse or any other profession for that matter.
It’s about economics
But from an economic perspective it is totally fair.
Andthere’s a very simple explanation why top athletes earn so much more and it’s one that people ofa socialist leaning find very difficult to comprehend:
It’s because top sports players are very scarce compared to the huge demand for their services from fans, promoters and sponsors.
The bottom line is that a great many more people have the ability to be nurses than to be a Floyd Mayweather or a James Harden. These people are exceptional and getting to where they got to is extremely hard.
If you look at the biographies of many of these people, there was far more to their success than just luck and the ability to throwpunches or loba ball through a hoop.
The other side of this explanation is demand.
Distribution is also key
Thanks to mass media, sports personalities can build huge followings of loyal and dedicated fans. This means promoters can pack stadiums, TV stations can draw record viewings (and sell advertising against that) and of course sponsors will pay handsomely to be associated with a sports star.
In essence a sports personality has the means to distribute their value to millions of people at low cost. By contrast a nurse can only deliver value, albeit much more value, to small numbers of people at any one time.
The only chance a nurse has to make serious money is to figure out how to distribute some of their value to millions of patients simultaneously at a compelling cost and then to monetise it.
Creating value and figuring out how to get it to the market is just one component in figuring out how to run a successful business. Here are 15 other ways to grow your business – simply click here
