From the Issue Published: October 1, 2022

Time Is Money

Consider How You’re Spending Your Most Valuable Currency

Craig Martelle

Time is the currency of our lives.

We invest it from the moment we’re born until our final day. Every moment is given to something that makes us who we are. Your time is the most valuable gift you can give to someone.

Invest in your mind and your soul as they are the foundation of you. Invest in your health. Invest in your family. And finally, invest today’s time in your future.

Writing, playing, relaxing, working, and yes, sleeping. As much as I use Facebook, it’s not quality time unless I look at it as sifting a stream, panning for gold. There is plenty to be had, as long as I don’t waste time with iron pyrite—fool’s gold.

Streamlining your processes and becoming efficient with your words are ways to get more from the investment of your time writing a book.

You pay with your time as that becomes money, and money buys the things you don’t have time to learn or can’t produce for yourself. I buy covers because learning to make them is not something I am equipped for. I don’t have time to learn a new trade. I’ll invest mine in what I’m good at—writing a story.

And time to give back. Charity is good for my soul, so I give most of mine to charity—time and the money that time has earned for me. I’ve invested in the future of my family.

Time. The great equalizer. We only have so much of it. Are you using yours to invest wisely in your health and in your future?

The day job is soul-sucking. You write to find a way out of the morass. You’re burning the candle at both ends. And then you’re free! Do you keep writing? Many struggle with their newfound gift of more time. Stay true to you. Stay true to the path you’ve laid out with your time investment. You’ll invest more, so much more, but will you do it wisely once you have a lot of it?

It’s like winning the lottery. Most winners are bankrupt in five years. Such a thing should be inconceivable. But it’s not. We don’t know what to do with what we don’t have, even after we have it.

Time is the currency of your future, spent today.

Craig Martelle

About the Author
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Craig Martelle

High school Valedictorian enlists in the Marine Corps under a guaranteed tank contract. An inauspicious start that was quickly superseded by excelling in language study. Contract waived, a year at the Defense Language Institute to learn Russian and off to keep my ears on the big red machine during the Soviet years. Back to DLI for advanced Russian after reenlisting. Deploying. Then getting selected to get a commission. Earned a four-year degree in two years by majoring in Russian Language. It was a cop out, but I wanted to get back to the fleet. One summa cum laude graduation later, that’s where I found myself. My first gig as a second lieutenant was on a general staff. I did well enough that I stayed at that level or higher for the rest of my career, while getting some choice side gigs – UAE, Bahrain, Korea, Russia, and Ukraine.
Major Martelle. I retired from the Marines after a couple years at the embassy in Moscow working arms control. The locals called me The German, because of my accent in Russian. That worked for me. It kept me off the radar. Just until it didn’t. Expelled after two years for activities inconsistent with my diplomatic status, I went to Ukraine. Can’t let twenty years of Russian language go to waste. More arms control. More diplomatic stuff. Then 9/11 and off to war. That was enough deployment for me. Then came retirement.
Department of Homeland Security was a phenomenally miserable gig. I quit that job quickly enough and went to law school. A second summa cum laude later and I was working for a high-end consulting firm performing business diagnostics, business law, and leadership coaching. More deployments. For the money they paid me, I was good with that. Just until I wasn’t. Then I started writing. You’ll find Easter eggs from my career hidden within all my books. Enjoy the stories.