What Are You Worth?

How much are you asking Life to pay you?

You cannot ask for more than you think you are worth.

I'm glad you opened the newsletter today. I'm asking the big question that everyone asks; what are you worth?

If you're a business owner or someone who renders service as a skill that doesn't necessarily have a lot of purchase implications, and all you charge is the worth you place on your skill, you'd know that it can be really difficult to put a price on your skill sometimes.

People who don't understand, or people who look from the outside can just be like, "Look at the industry standard and set your price according to the standard," but it's not as easy as they say, because even standards are different. You'd find some people charging 10x more than what the normal standard is, and you'd see other people charging 2x or 3x less than that.

In such industries, it is very easy to shortchange ourselves, second-guess our skills and the products we create, and then charge less, or ask for less than we are worth. Some people even go ahead to charge a lot higher than they are worth and they perhaps get burned for it.

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Here's the trick though, and this is a law that the Universe works with. The universe will seldom give you what you don't ask for, and will always give you what you ask for. It means that the Universe will allow you to determine and choose what you're worth, get you to ask for a value equivalent to that, and then give you exactly what you've asked for, nothing more.

If you ask the universe a penny, you will get a penny, and if you ask for a million pennies for the same work and stay long enough in that asking (remember my previous letter to you on your attitude to NO), you will get what you have asked for.

In Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill wrote a poem I deemed fit to bring into this letter. It tells a lot more about this phenomenon.

I bargained with Life for a penny

And Life would pay no more,

However, I begged at the evening

When I counted my scanty store.

For Life is a just employer,

He gives what you ask,

But once you have set the wages,

Why, you must bear the task.

I worked for a menial hire,

Only to learn, dismayed,

That any wage I had asked of Life,

Life would have willingly paid.

This poem is so profound because it tells of how just Life or the Universe in this case is, and how she would only give what you've asked for, and your asking is directly proportional to the worth you've placed on yourself. You cannot ask for more than you think you are worth.

If you think you're worth a penny, you'd not ask for more than that. If you think you're worth more than a penny, you'd ask for more than that.

Which begs the question today, dear reader, what are you worth? What are you asking Life to pay you?

This is a powerful concept because true to God, the Universe is listening. There are so many ways through which you can ask for your worth. It is not enough to just ask for your worth verbally, you must also ask through the quality of work you do, the quality of service you render, and the product you create.

If you ask for 100 pennies only to go ahead to produce work worth 20 pennies, then you have asked amiss. You must ask in words and deeds. I have even seen people who never asked in words, and just went on to produce quality, only to be given more than they would have ever asked for.

It is important to know exactly what you're worth and have the confidence to ask Life about that. And Life, in this context can mean so many things. Life can be your friends, your employers, your clients, your customers, your suppliers, or other people to whom you render your service.

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"How do I build the confidence to ask for what I'm worth?" I've heard the question more times than not, and there's only one answer for it: Invest in yourself.

Put a lot into yourself, pay with your money, pay with your time, pay through your teeth, attend those training, take those courses, deprive yourself of sleep, stay up to learn those skills that will improve your work and see your work improve so much, you would feel nothing but confident when you ask 10x more than you've always asked for your services because you know exactly how much you have sacrificed for it.

If you're unsure of what you're worth at this time, it's either because you haven't been putting enough into yourself, or you haven't been counting your costs and your sacrifices. Now is the time to start.

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In The Alchemist, the book we have just finished reading at the book club, The Alchemist, after turning lead into gold, split it in four and gave the Monk one part, only for the Monk to say he didn't deserve so much, that what he was given was beyond his generosity.

The Alchemist answered and said, "Don't say that again. Life might be listening and give you less next time."

This goes to affirm, that if you think you're worth less than you are, you will be given less than you are worth. And if you think you're worth much more, you will be given much more.

Your lot in life is a function of your worth as established by you.

Again, as I end this letter to you, I ask, "What are you worth?"

To your growth,

Your Coach,

Abiola Okunsanya,

Handzinspired. ✨