Principle 1: You get paid in proportion to the amount of total value you provide to your market place.

The first requirement to taking advantage of this principle is to work out who you have to please in order to earn more money; in other words to work out who really constitutes your market place.

If you are a business person then your market place will include your customers but it also includes your staff. If your staff members have great job satisfaction then that will lead to better sales and service to your customers and that means more profit for you.

If you are an employee your market place is most likely to include your boss as well as the customers of the company. If you can work out how to exceed the expectations of both your boss and the company's clients then your income will go up (either in that company or in a new job).

You can also leverage this first principle by increasing the number of people you please. J.K. Rowling enjoys a huge income because so many millions of people of all ages enjoy the Harry Potter books and movies. Each one only makes a small contribution to her income but it all adds up to a very large amount indeed.

Principle 2: It doesn't matter where you start on the ladder what is important is that you climb up.

People get stressed over what they get paid. They go on strike for more. They petition the government to increase minimum wages. These strategies however will never lead to a high income. Demanding more money does not increase your value and so it will never give you more than a token increase in income.

A far better strategy is to accept where ever you are on the ladder as your starting point and then tap into Principle 1 and increase your value as much as you possibly can.

Where you start on the ladder only has relevance if you plan to stay there, and why on earth would you want to do that.

Principle 3: There is always another rung you can climb to.

According to a report by The New York Times on Thursday, October 26, 2006 the highest-paid executive in America at that time was Barry Diller with a total compensation package in excess of $295 million. Not bad for a guy who started his career at the very bottom of the ladder working in the mail room.

The beauty of the income ladder is that there is no limit to what you can earn. It all depends on you and how valuable you are willing to become. If you keep climbing there will always be another rung there waiting for you.

Principle 4: If you get yourself fit for climbing then climbing can be a lot of fun.

Most people would find rock climbing very difficult, but those who have trained themselves in the necessary skills and fitness do it for fun. The same is true for income climbing. If you develop the knowledge and emotional fitness required then income climbing can be your financial sport as well as a reward.

Principle 5: What rung you've climbed to so far is your measure of success but your reward is the mental and emotional fitness you developed along the way.

Principle 4 suggested that you get fit for the climb. Principle 5 says that the mental and emotional fitness that you get on your way up is even more valuable than the financial reward. As with any form of success it is who you become on the journey that really makes that journey worthwhile.

If you want to increase your income then start working on yourself in such a way that you become a more financially valuable person and then you will find that your income will follow that personal development.