This article is inspired by something that happened to me today. It actually started like four days back. I was referred for a fish job by one of my mentors, and as a result of the fact that he made the referral, I didn't bother negotiating with the client as I never negotiate with clients brought by him. He usually does the negotiating before referring a client to me.
So, the fish job involved extracting organs from fish seed and seedlings, which have been stored in a preserving chemical called formaldehyde for months, translation; remove almost invisible organs from fishes that contain a high dose of a concentrated chemical that's very dangerous to touch and inhale, all without proper safety and working tools. The job was extremely dangerous, through and through.
Image Credit: Clay Banks (on un splash.com)
I still went with him regardless and extracted fish gills that day, but due to the extremely small size, I couldn't confidently identify the liver, so I postponed the liver extraction to the next day, but ended up being able to do it three days later due to unforeseen circumstances on both our parts.
After the first time I removed the gills for the client, who happens to be a post graduate student, my hands were suffering for days and is currently still suffering from the effect of coming in contact with the preserving chemical for such a long time. The cell on and around my palms and fingernails are dying and making me look leprous. You would think that would deter me from finishing the job or the fact that I am really sick or show him how much I was doing for him, but obviously it didn't. Why I say so??
Well, after completing the job, it was time to get paid and this fellow had me wait for almost another hour because he didn't have cash and had to withdraw. After the wait, this fellow came and pressed a thousand naira into my hand, while looking me with a smirk on his face. I kept quiet and we walked away from the shop towards the road where I was to get a vehicle heading my way.
He walked up to me, with a victory smile on his face, and that's when I hit him with him. I made it clear to him that anything below three thousand, I would be sowing into his life whether he believes it or not. I made it clear to him, I would rather do it for free than to collect below three thousand naira. In that moment, he realized that I knew what my time and work was worth and that I wasn't going to accept less, all within a few minutes.
It got me thinking how people's value get downplayed and reduced by other people. Most of the time, it's because we tend to be unsure ourselves what our time, work and effort is worth, hence other people do the evaluation for us and they will subconsciously or consciously downplay it, either to take advantage of us or to make them feel better about themselves.
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It is very paramount you value your time, work and effort and know how much it's worth. Then when you've done that, don't let anybody make you accept less than what your true value is. You're the one who decide how much you're worth, no other person, just you, always remember that.**
