Finding your Personal Highest and Best Use
The term “Highest and Best Use” (HABU) is used in real estate appraisals to indicate the most lucrative use of a property. HABU is a concept you can apply to your own personal conditions to get to personal success, in whatever manner you define it, or in business conditions to maximize efficiency in the organization.
To use a real estate example: a 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom house on an acre in a thriving business district could be far more valuable than any other house in town, because the land it’s on could be used for a business. The HABU could be millions of dollars, whereas the structure itself is worth almost nothing. The HABU represents the potential of the property, rather than the current condition of the property.
Now, let’s think about how we use our own personal resources, such as money, time, power and influence. It makes sense to use our resources in the most efficient way, considering what our goals are. Common goals are money (or we’ll just call them assets), happiness, job satisfaction, efficiency or ability to help others. We’ll call these common goals “Personal Success” because the definition is unique to you. This concept is very simple, once you hear it, but so many people don’t think about their own Highest and Best Use.
Are you using your personal resources in the best way for you to achieve personal success?
This question came to me one night while trying to think of what would be the best way for me to contribute to Greg Mortenson’s efforts to build schools to educate girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan, through the Central Asia Institute (CAI). Some people might think of quitting their lucrative positions to go help build the schools… but that probably isn’t the action that would result in the most help to CAI. I thought I could donate money, but then thought about an alternative. Let’s say I was going to donate $100. What if I went out and bought $100 worth of used copies of “Three Cups of Tea” (Greg’s book about the beginning of the effort to build schools in Pakistan) and gave them to people I came across? In my experience, everyone who reads “Three Cups of Tea” wants to share the book with someone else, AND donate money to build schools. I think that the $100 I spent on the books would probably result in $200 or more to the organization. The HABU for my $100 was buying the books and sharing them with people I come across at work because I believe that will result in an income stream from the people I influenced, and the people they influenced, etc…
Think about what is the best way to contribute to your children’s classroom. I have a Masters degree in Engineering, and have an exciting job in the satellite field. Is the best use of my time in the classroom cutting out paper squares for an art project? I think not. I think the best use of my time is to prepare a presentation about satellites to the kids, so they can get an idea about how math and science can be exciting.
Think about what is the best way to contribute to your company. Is the best use of your time to “just do your job” or is it to do your job in a way that will improve the process, so others can do their job better?
Think about house-cleaning and the value of your time. I would much rather spend my time playing with my children, than clean my house. I pay someone else to do the house-cleaning so that I can have more time to be with my kids. To me, having a professional clean my house is HABU of my resources (I trade money for time, a trade that doesn’t work for everyone).
Do you have more time than money? Like to trade some of your time for money? Then, be sure you are doing it in a way that makes sense. What are your capabilities? There are ways to make money on the internet, if you take the time to do it. Here again, make the best use of your time: if you have 100 hours to spend creating a website to make money, don’t spend it making a site about iPods. You will never be able to compete against Apple, Best Buy or any other site to sell iPods. Pick something where you are not competing against every other person who wanted to develop a website. Pick a niche topic, such as Collectible Plant Seeds, or something you are interested in and work on that. The results will pay you back if you chose your topic “off the beaten path”.
The people we commonly think of as successful have found their Highest and Best Use. People like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs wouldn’t be where they are if they had decided that their HABU was gardening (for example). Greg Mortenson has made the difference in thousands of people’s lives because he decided that his HABU was to enable the building of many schools (165 at this writing) for children (especially girls) in remote villages in Pakistand and Afghanistan. The Dalai Lama wouldn’t be who is if he had decided to be a sherpa (not that he had a choice to be the Dalai Lama, though!). Many mothers struggle with the question of “how am I most valuable to my children” with a whole spectrum of answers, each specific to the values of the mother. My decision was based on my goal to see my daughter grow up to be independent and know she has a role model to see that women can be valuable workers and can make their own money. The price is that I don’t get to see her at 2:30 when she gets out of school. We all have our own measures.
This article on Moneywatch about Highest and Best Use takes a slightly different tack but in a similar way. It discusses how many people feel underutilized in their work and also how many people choose businesses to start that really don’t have a chance because it wasn’t the persons “best use”. The exercise it recommends could be quite enlightening, because in some ways it is so obvious.
- List the things you are good at (your capabilities)
- List the things you enjoy (hobbies, sports)
- List the things that bring you joy (happiness, meaning, purpose).
What are in all three categories? Those are the things you should focus on to enhance your personal success.
Think about your own HABU whenever you are making a decision about your resources. You will find more personal success if you do.
