Self-Worth

A father said to his daughter, you have graduated with honors, here is a car I bought many years ago. It's pretty old now, but before I give it to you, take it to the used car lot downtown and tell them I want to sell it and see how much they offer you for it.

The daughter went to the used car lot, returned to her father and said they offered me $1,000 because they said it looks pretty worn out. The father said, okay, now take it to the pawn shop. The daughter went to the pawn shop, returned to her father and said the shop owner said it is only $100 because it is such an old car. The father now asked his daughter to go to a car club and show them the car. The daughter then took the car to the club, returned and told her father. Some people in the club offered up to $100,000 for it, because it's an iconic car and sought by many collectors.

Now the father said to his daughter, the right place values you the right way. If you don't know your value, you will always settle for far less than you deserve.

Well, this is so true for each of us in our profession. People who don't know their value settle for less than they are worth. When it comes to their profession or their job, they know they are worth more, but they settle for someone else's definition of their worth. And most of us, we allow just about anyone to influence our perception of ourselves.

But those who know themselves, those people, those leaders who truly understand their value, refuse to accept the opinions of small-minded people. They refuse to be put in a box. They will not be defined by anyone but themselves. They know their value is set by themselves, by their own thoughts about who they are, and not someone else's opinion of what they are worth.

So I encourage you that you must build your self-worth by the work that you do every single day on yourself. You build it by the way that you show up every single day.

Your Good Friend and Mentor

Payal Nanjiani