Sadhguru answers a question on how important salary is in choosing a job, and looks at how one should gauge the true worth of one’s activity…
Question: I have a choice between working in a high-paying job, and another one that I really like, but where the pay is not so great. How do I choose between the two?
Sadhguru: How much you are worth need not be seen just in terms of how much you are paid. How much you are worth should be assessed in terms of what responsibilities are given to you. The privilege is not the money that you receive, the privilege is that you have been allowed to create something.
Money is a means for our survival, and to that extent it is necessary. However, you must always assess yourself in terms of whatever you are being asked to do. What is the level of responsibility that is being offered to you? What is the opportunity available to you to create something truly worthwhile, both for yourself and for everyone around you?
Touching Another Life
Any work that you do in the world is truly worthwhile for you only if you are able to touch people’s lives deeply. For example, if you were to make a film, would you want to make a film no one would want to watch? Or build a house that no one would want to live in? You would not want to produce something no one wants to use because in some way, you long to touch people’s lives.
If you look closely, you will see that you want the activity you perform to touch people’s lives. Many people try to divide their life into work and family, where work is something that you do just for money, and family is something you do to touch people’s lives. But this aspect need not restrict itself to family alone. It could extend itself into every area of life. Whatever you do should touch people’s lives – that is all that really matters.
How deeply you touch people’s lives depends on how involved you are in what you do. If you are deeply involved, naturally the way you work will be very different, and you will be paid according to your capabilities. Sometimes you will have to bargain a little or ask for a raise, perhaps your company needs to be reminded about these things. But generally, if people realize the value of what you are to that particular business or company, they will pay accordingly.
If you grow in what you are doing, some day, when it is necessary, you could shift from one position to the next, and your money could just multiply ten times over. For example, let us say you are heading a corporation and for whatever reason you are not paid much, but you have been given full responsibility to run the whole operation. If you are performing well and the whole world is watching, anyone will be willing to take you tomorrow for any amount. So your value need not always be gauged in terms of money.
Why We Have Companies
We have established corporations so that we can collectively achieve what we cannot do individually. We could have all operated as individual entrepreneurs – that is how we operated historically – everyone was a manufacturer and trader of some commodity. But when we are willing to put the will of thousands of people together in one direction, that is a corporation wanting to achieve something big.
Your real worth lies in the level of responsibility and trust that has been placed in you in this corporation. How much you derive from it in terms of money is important, but it is not everything. You must always gauge your worth in terms of the level of responsibility people are willing to give you, and whether what you are creating is truly worthwhile for yourself and for others.
