What's Your Worth?

 

 

POINT TO PONDER 

 

The world is too big. There are an abundance of opportunities. If you believe in yourself, and know your self-worth, there is always room at the top for your talents somewhere in this world. 

 

                                - Pravin R. Shah 1965.

 

 

 

STORY LINE

 

 

This is the story about a fellow who, several years ago, left his job and went into the consulting business. After he had finished a presentation about his services to a potential customer, the Vice President of Operations of the customer company asked him to come to his office  to work out the terms of the agreement.

 

When the fellow arrived, Mr. VP handed him a piece of paper and asked him to review and fill up the required information. This fellow was surprised because he was expecting a lengthy, legal terms and conditions type documents. Instead, there were only four words on that entire piece of paper. Rate…….Hours…….Others Conditions.

 

Never having expected this in his wildest imagination and still in a state of disbelief, the fellow told Mr. VP, “I will take whatever is the going rate with your other consultants with similar experience.”  After further insistence from Mr. VP that he must fill up that information himself, this fellow put down certain $$$ and Hours.

 

After a few months, as their work relationship became closer and the fellow had delivered good results, Mr. VP told him, “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.

 

REFLECTION

 

It is hard to believe that such things could happen in business world where someone  would be so gracious to  increase the compensation rate without negotiations. But I have seen it happen more than one time.

 

But the key point of this real story is the lesson that Gary Remmen (Mr. VP, now retired in Florida) taught this young fellow. Whether you are in a business 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:

 

1.Constantly look at the return you create for your customers as well as  analysis of your personal assets

2. Explore new opportunities to expand the scope of your existing talents.

3. Develop the new skills and thus grow your portfolio of capabilities and services hence your value.

 

SO WHAT ARE YOU WORTH?