I love what I do. I love my job. I'm not a genius, and I'm not a world-class, renowned authority on anything I do. I'm just a guy, but I like to think I'm good at what I do, because I love it, and that makes me spend time learning and refining my skills.
I also know I'm lazy when it comes to other things, especially things that require physical effort. I usually say I might not help you move to a new house, but I will always help you if you have a computer problem. Although we can't always do whatever we want, there are always opportunities in life to help others without it having to be unpleasant for yourself. And that's why, although I hope my boss doesn't know it, if he weren't paying the bills I'd work for free.
Now, this is not all about greed and just money. Financial security, stability, independence, whatever you want to call it, is always a problem we'll have to solve one way or another.
I was inspired the other day by my favorite YouTube channel, Veritasium. There's one video where Derek says he wants his audience to get more value out of him than he gets out of them. I think there's a way to accomplish that. I believe I can still give more than I receive and at the same time make a good living out of it. There has to be a way.
Sometimes we're conditioned to believe that life is a zero-sum game: that for us to thrive, someone else has to lose, or that if we give more than we receive, we'll somehow run out of whatever we give, or end up with less because of it. I think that's not necessarily true. I still don't know exactly how I would take this principle to business and money.
I do remember reading a book a while ago by Tony Robbins, and I forget exactly what he said or which book it was, but he said we can always offer something of value to others. And I think improving someone else's life and maybe making a bit of a profit out of it doesn't mean you're a bad person and taking advantage of people.
I have this unpleasant feeling when it comes to my work and trying to monetize it. I feel like I should charge very little, because a lot of this comes easy to me and I enjoy it. So maybe I undercharge a lot. Add to that that I'm a shy guy, an introvert, and I don't feel like charging a lot for my work.
But I'm also convinced that I have skills few people around me have, and that I could be improving someone's life and business by applying them. Even if they were to pay me handsomely for that, what they give me would be, to them, absolutely worth it. So I'm trying to change my mind about how I think about this, and to solve that problem, so I can keep doing what I'm doing, get a fair income out of it, and at the same time give people more than they give me back.
Is this too idealistic? I don't know. But I think it's something worth trying.