WHY I TURNED DOWN A ‘WELL PAYING JOB’ IN 2019

Shortly after starting my own blog late last year, a very close friend of mine pitched my work (well, it wasn’t much but i was proud of it)to a certain client’ a well known brand’ located at the heart of our capital city Nairobi. At that time i had only one blog post but i believed in myself that’s all that mattered. I was really shocked that the brand agreed to meet with me given that i hadn’t had much exposure in this field.

So carry forward, i met with the client, we reviewed what i was meant to do for them , of course agreed on the payment and so i begun the work. I had never been so excited in my life for that job, like who wouldn’t. But i was a bit skeptical at first because i wasn’t used to that kind of exposure and i didn’t see it coming. Everything was kinda unfolding really fast. So days prior to the actual job, i had mixed feelings. Was i jumping into this too fast? am i going ahead of myself? But you know what, when opportunity knocks at your door then why not take it, right?

The D day finally arrived, but things didn’t go as planned because 1st the brand wasn’t doing much on their end to make the event a success, their mode of marketing was not as good and their level of professionalism..eeeh questionable. Not so many people showed up but you know what no need to panic June, its just the beginning. Deep down i still wasn’t 100% about this job.In our agreement, I was to be paid after the event. So day one passes, day 2, 3, i’m like woouu why aren’t this guys getting back to me.So i decide to contact them. They of course apologise act like they forgot then to make things worse, they don’t pay me my full amount of which it was even lower than what they had officially promised.

My boss at the time explained everything to me saying that the sales were not as expected so they didn’t have that amount of cash to pay me but were like the next week things were gonna get better. As the naive self i was i agreed and moved on. Getting paid less actually motivated me to push even hadder to get more sales the next week, and as hard work pays for sure they made more sales than the previous week. I had secured the bag!! i thought to myself. So work is done i wait for my payment as usual. mayoooooo!! This time they didn’t delay by 3 days as the previous, now it was nearly a whole month. the manager was ignoring my text messages, blue ticking me on whats app name it. So finally i threatened the one paying me and they eventually paid me but WAIT!! it was less again.

What was his excuse this time?? You might be thinking to yourself. ‘THAT’S THE AMOUNT THAT WAS LEFT FOR ME TO PAY YOU.’ You bet i was furious as hell. What do you mean that is what was left for you?? I took the disrespect once i’m not going to do that again sweetie, no. I knew that i was worth more than what they were giving me and i still am now.

Sweetie, its OKAY TO SAY NO. When you’re new to the game, an offer of any sort-in kind or paid- can be too thrilling of a prospect to turn down. You get so wrapped up in the excitement that someone sees value in your work that it can be easy to forget to check your values before agreeing to it. What i’m realising now more than anything that having an actual identity makes you valuable. Your following is attracted to you. The more you stay true to yourself, the more you’ll attract and the more money you’ll earn.

Don’t say yes to just anyone, be it an individual, company or anything that you do not believe in-you’ll wind up feeling used, disrespected and probably feel bad about yourself. And never forget your instinct never lies.

Love Muthoni.