Understanding WORK

The first thing that you have to understand about work is that you are not working for someone else. Sure someone else is paying your wage, but you are really working for yourself. You go to work to sell your services so that you can earn an income that you use to maintain your lifestyle.

You must learn to see yourself as a business and to constantly evaluate your performance and value in the market place. The salary that you earn is an indication of the value that the market, your employer, puts on your services. The salary that you accept is an indication of the value that you put on your services, or an indication of how desperate you are to sell.

You can either accept that valuation and continue to render the same services to the market, or you can shop around and see if you can get a better deal, or you can improve the value of your services, or you can do as many misguided individuals do and try to force the market to pay you more. (Remember, that just as you shop around for a better deal, the market is also looking for a better deal. This creates a massive opportunity for you.)

The second thing that you must understand about work is that no-one owes you anything other than in terms of a valid contract and you have fulfilled your part of the deal. The market does not have to support you, you have to make yourself attractive to the market All that the market does is provide an opportunity for you to offer your services, it is up to you how you utilise that opportunity.

The third thing about work is that, it's not about how much you do it's about the value of what you do. If what you do can be easily done by many people then you should not expect a great reward for doing it. There was a time that we used to say its "The survival of the fittest", these days its "The survival of the smartest" And the smartest is the one who is constantly striving to increase the value of his services.

The fourth thing about work is that, you don't deserve to be paid more for what you do until you do more than you are paid to do. Now whether or not your employer recognises your efforts is not nearly as important as how you feel about your contribution. Develop pride in yourself. Do everything as well as you can. Realise that by doing the job well you are building a success foundation and earning the respect of the most important person in your life, you.

Do not focus on trying to force the market to pay you more. Do not reduce the level of your service to match what you believe to be an undervaluation of your service. Put all your effort into making your service worth more to the market. Do whatever you do as well as you can. Remember it's your reputation at stake, it's your sense of significance at stake, it's your future at stake.