GOOD “WORTH” ETHIC

“The tragedy is that so many people look for self-confidence and self-respect everywhere except within themselves, and so they fail in their search.” Dr Nathaniel Branden


In all aspects of our lives we find ourselves evaluating our worth. Are we worthy of this clique of friends, do we fit into a certain school, are we good enough for that guy or girl…
Our esteem and self-worth are tied into a number of factors. Family status, money, career, education, experience even fashion sense all play roles in our feeling of worthiness (or worthlessness) at different stages in life. We put a value on our selves.

In the business world the same challenges exist. We must rate ourselves and express this value to our colleagues and employers. Self-employed entrepreneurs often have to set rates that reflect the worth of the company and the products and services offered. There is a popular story of a gentleman who went into a consulting business after leaving his job of many years. After finishing a presentation to a potential client, the VP of Operations of the company invited him in to discuss the terms of agreement.

Of course the gentleman expected a long, wordy document with legal jargon but instead got a single sheet of paper with the following 4 words:

Rate….. Hours…… Other Conditions…….

Being taken off guard, the gentleman said he will take the going rate of the competitors; but the VP insisted he wrote a quote.

Several months into the project, after good results, the VP decided to share a tip with the gentleman:

“I know that you have not been in business for yourself before, but whether it is your own business or a job, you must know your worth all the time. We were willing to pay you twice as much because that is what we had assessed in terms of what you could do to save our biggest customer from moving away.” He continued, “So now that we have been able to regain our customer’s confidence in us with your help, how much are you worth?” And he again gave him a piece of paper to fill up. It had the same four words as the first one. The gentleman had poor ‘worth’ ethic (sure he didn’t after!)

My husband is one of the most talented music producers and audio mixing engineers I know. He is extremely knowledgeable but refuses to add audio mixing to his list of services offered by our music production company. He doesn’t think he is ‘good enough’… doesn’t think his skills are of enough worth to be paid for. It’s great to be a perfectionist (speaking as one myself) but after a while we need to realize our strengths and not be afraid to explore new areas of our business. This is poor ‘worth’ ethic.

As a business owner or an employee; you must regularly do an analysis of the portfolio of your capabilities and services (talents) and determine what it is worth. This allows you to:

· Assess your strengths and explore opportunities to expand the business

· Improve on the weaknesses, increasing your company’s worth.

· Create confidence in the consumers and clients about the quality of the products and services (coupled with reputation, of course)

· Put yourself in a position for promotions


Always remember the importance of good “worth” ethic!!!