Being valued within our community and having status used to be crucial for survival. For most of human evolution being banished was a death sentence. We strove to prove our value within our community and feeling valued increased our sense of safety and well-being. Additionally, the higher our status, the more quality of life we enjoyed.
We get our sense of self and self worth from how we see ourselves through other people’s eyes. We define ourselves based on how we fit within our society. People describe themselves by their job or business, with some jobs having more status than others. We feel that status as we introduce ourselves to people we meet.
We work hard to realize intrinsic self worth, while enjoying extrinsic praise. We strive to feel our value independent of what others think. It’s a quality that frees us from the fear of being judged and allows us to dare without fear. It’s much easier when we have a strong sense of our own worth because we value our qualities.
We want to be recognized for the contribution we make to others. We want to feel that the work we do, how we spend our time, makes a difference.
We like to feel we are making people’s lives better We can do that in our business by
- providing needed products or services;
- hiring staff and paying for services
- increasing local money supply by exporting
- increasing the sense of wealth by spending our money locally,
- supporting culture, sport and worthy causes through donations, sponsorships and contributions.
You get to design your business for you. How can you add the esteem you would like to feel to the work you do in your business?