The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘Jessie B. Rittenhouse’

Can you determine your wages? I have been thinking about this a lot recently. Reading books by Seth Godin and Hugh MacLeod, as well as reflecting on interviews I have conducted, has brought this issue front and centre for me. If you are doing work that matters. If you are doing work that changes people. If your are doing the one thing you were born to do, could you set your own wages?

This is a follow-up post to one I did a year ago, “Using the Poem “My Wage” by Jessie B. Rittenhouse to Think Differently.” Let’s take a look at the poem My Wage by Jessie B. Rittenhouse again.

My Wage

I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store;

For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.

I worked for a menial’s hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have paid.

So if life is a just employer, and you are doing work that matters, will you get the wage that you ask? What has been your experience? Please share your comments in the box below. How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

My Wage

I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store;

For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.

I worked for a menial’s hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have paid.