Salary and the value of a working person

Salary and the value of a working person.

December 9, 2006, the first time I went to work, because a friend forced me into it. He forced me to write a CV and then wrote it for me — first time writing a CV, I had no clue what to write, no clue what there was to write. Salary 2,500,000 VND/month at Tìm Nhanh/Kiếm Việc, I thought to myself when the CEO offered the pay: this guy, each month I already spend $400 (money I make myself) and he's offering 2.5 million? Wanted to turn it down, but I'd promised that dog @[100000032287003:2048:Phong Tran] I'd go to work…

December 16, 2006, I joined Vinagame because anh Phạm Quốc Dũng forwarded my CV to anh Tâm who was running Yobanbe. Lê Thành Trung (I'll have many more posts about him) paid me 4,500,000 VND/month with one closing line — "you know a lot, but only at the surface." Accepted — at 22 I was already full of myself, and at 40 I'm still full of the same foolishness.

More than 8 years at Vinagame, I never raised any salary issue with any colleague or boss, no promises asked for, no asking to leave for stock options, not a single thing! You could say it's because I didn't need more money — that's partly true. You could say I saw everyone complaining and thought if I added mine the boss might break down — there's a little of that too. You could say I went to work and had so much fun, learned so much, met so many people, got to do so many things, so a salary that isn't tiny is already enough. In short, I went to work and never cared about salary! And yet in year seven, some guy told me hey your salary is already high, no raise this year okay. Son of a bitch. I don't even care about salary — why do I need to hear high or low as an excuse not to raise it?

To this day, year 20 of my career, salary isn't important!

So don't come thump your chest in front of this guy saying I have to get this much pay to be worth it, I have to have the highest salary in this company, that other company offered me 200 million but I'm still here, I have to, I have to, and I have to.

Does high salary give you pressure to do more, or does high salary make you feel important and kill your drive? Does a high salary make you feel you're above others and then uselessness sneaks in before you notice?

If your value can be measured in money, it's very cheap.