The Price of Value

This week's theme comes straight from Facebook Marketplace.

My husband (who is not a social media guy) asked me to list his Kubota skid steer for "69-9."

So I did.

I had just sold his utility trailer for $2,200, so I entered all the details, uploaded the photos, and hit Publish.

Within seconds, seriously seconds, I had four messages. Two people said they had cash and could come immediately.

I turned to my husband, who was still sitting nearby, and said, "Wow...you must've really undervalued this thing. People are chomping at the bit."

He looked at me.

"You listed it for 69-9?"

"Yep."

He paused.

"Sixty-nine nine, what?"

I looked back at him.

"Sixty-nine, nine zero?"

"Sixty-nine hundred?! No...sixty-nine thousand, nine hundred" 😬

"Oh." Who knew? 🤷‍♀️ 

Evidently – many people.

And that missing zero sent me down a path of thinking about how we recognize value - including our own. 

My husband and I laughed about the skid steer all week.

It really reinforces that we often undervalue things, including ourselves and the importance of knowing our worth.

It's common among family physicians. We've internalized messages like "It's just family medicine." We worry about adding financial burdens to our patients and hesitate to charge what our expertise is worth. Meanwhile, many of our subspecialty colleagues don't wrestle with those same questions nearly as much and it helps them stay in business. But, as Dr. Una says, "You have to earn to serve."

It’s also common for many women who hesitate to negotiate compensation.

I even know people who feel bad for documenting every hour of grant work they were explicitly hired, and funded, to do. (🙋‍♀️ - me, it’s me)

Thinking back to the Marketplace messages, five people immediately recognized the value of that skid steer.

Four did what most buyers would do. They saw a bargain and wanted to be first in line.

But one simply wrote, "I think you left off a zero." All five recognized its value.

Only one wanted to make sure I recognized it too.

That stands out to me.  

I've had people in my life who saw something in me before I could see it myself. Sometimes I had to borrow their belief until I could recognize my own value.

The corollary: if you undervalue yourself, most people will simply enjoy the benefits and never say a word.

Reflection: 
1. Where might you be missing a zero?
2. Who helped you see your own value before you could?
3. Whose value have you noticed and when you can tell them, "I think you're missing a zero."?