Value of Time

Few days ago, I was relieving a class. As usual, students were estastic that their English teacher was absent. "Free periods!" they shouted.

Seeing that they were so gleeful to be wasting away half hour of learning, I shared with them a poem:

To realise the value of One Year,

Ask a student who failed his or her AP exams.

To realise the value of One Month,

As a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.

To realise the value of One Week,

Ask an editor of a weekly magazine.

To realise the value of One Day,

Ask a daily wage labourer who has six kids to feed.

To realise the value of One Hour,

Ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.

To realise the value of One Minute,

Ask a person who missed his train.

To realise the value of One Second,

Ask the person who survived an accident.

To realise the value of One Millisecond,

Ask the person who won a silver medal in the Olympics.

We are our own time master. We determine the value of our time.

Why are some people able to charge $1000 for one hour of their time (i.e. speakers, trainers etc) while others have so many worthless hours to squander?