My Brother Gave Me the Best Business Advice Ever

The three little words that forever changed how I’d look at appreciative bosses and glowing performance evaluations

My brother was never a CEO or entrepreneur. He doesn’t have an MBA. He never went to college at all. But he has a great work ethic. He’s savvy about how the world works. And he was smart enough to point out what I was missing in how I was managing my work life.

Before I became a freelancer, I worked for a nonprofit, a large educational institution, a small family-run law firm, and a division of a multinational publishing corporation, not to mention part-time gigs at countless businesses of all sizes and organizational types.

There was one thing I found common to all of these businesses — a clear disconnect between the satisfaction my employers had with my work and the monetary reward for it. Even as I worked at levels above and beyond what my job description called for and got rave reviews from my managers, it seemed that a bump in pay or a bonus was rarely forthcoming.

I was complaining to my brother one time about how frustrating it was to get excellent job performance evaluations that never led to more compensation. My managers thanked me for my hard work, but there was always some reason why they couldn’t give me a raise. Either it wasn’t in the budget, or there was a wage freeze, or I was already at the top of the pay range for my classification. The company appreciated my work, my managers always said, but …

My brother listened patiently and then said three words that changed everything for me:

“Gratitude is green.”

His point was that in business, people pay for what they value. Companies pay their vendors because they value the product or service they get from them. They expect payment from their customers because they believe they are delivering a product or service the client should value. The more the value, the higher the payment.

It should be no different for employees. If they do their job above and beyond what is required, their value is greater and should be rewarded — with money. Money — not thank yous, or praise, or pats on the head — is the currency of the business world.

My brother’s advice caused me to look at my work life in a very different way. I had bought into the idea of being a “team player” and keeping the company’s objectives foremost in my mind.

But I wasn’t working for a charity. I wasn’t a volunteer. I wanted to see my employers succeed and make a profit but I wanted to succeed and make money as well. It made no sense for me to be more invested in my company’s success than they were in mine — or than I was in my own success, for that matter.

I began to change the way I approached my job. In my next job performance review, I made it clear that I was no longer going to accept the excuses for not getting a raise in pay, even if it required a reclassification of my position. My manager said that it would take time.

Months passed. No raise came, but I had not acquiesced. Instead, I was quietly making plans.

One day my boss came into my cubicle and told me that my job reclassification had come through, with a pay raise. I said thank you, but I had already decided that I would be resigning at the end of the month in order to go freelance.

His jaw dropped. He asked if I would change my mind given that he had gone to so much effort to get me more money. I told him no, that my mind was already made up, that the company had gone too long undervaluing my work.

But I made sure to let him know I appreciated his hard work and I hoped that would be good enough.

Point made.

I have been freelancing for more than 20 years since that time and, while the freelance life is not always easy, I’ve never looked back.

But I’ve also never forgotten my brother’s advice and I try to apply it in my freelance business as well. I have no time for unappreciative or underpaying clients.

Gratitude really is green.

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