A speaker traces how they learned to measure their worth through others' praise, from a $5 tip at 14 to commendations from four-star generals as an Army event marketer. When they tied their income to that external validation, their self-esteem and paycheck both became hostage to other people's opinions.
realizing at your Unbreakable Wealth Retreat that I have been understanding my value based on other people's reactions rather than do I actually know my own value. That served me for a very long time. And if we look back to the original story that we talked about, age 14, getting this $5 bill, looking up and seeing my new boss look at me with admiration and be like, you did a good job. One of my clients when I was in event marketing was US Army, and I had 4-star generals coming up to me and saying, "You're doing an incredible thing. You guys are recruiting more people for the US Army than any of my recruiters. You're doing an amazing job." And so my value became tied to what other people thought of me. And that gets really scary when you put a dollar amount on that. Yeah. Because that is what they're willing to pay for your work is all of a sudden now tied to that intrinsic, like, emotional value piece as well. And that was the trap that I got caught in.
