You Are Worth More Than A Bigger Salary

I just got off a phone call where I was able to respectfully decline a job offer from one of the biggest local real estate firms in the city.

Three months ago, I watched as my wedding photography business collapsed in slow motion, with cancellation after cancellation in one of the most depressing and exhausting weeks of my life in recent memory (I had 2 crying breakdowns within 7 days that I remember).

Since my wedding photography gig fell apart, I was able to successfully pivot towards working with small businesses—the stuff you now know me for—as my full time income. A lot of that came from first saying yes to a lot of opportunities that came my way last year, and laid the foundation for what I do today.

Why did I turn down that head hunter?

First of all, I ought to clarify how this blog title is mildly misleading: they didn’t offer me a bigger salary than what I’m projected to make as a self-employed person. In fact, they weren’t even really willing to offer me half of what I am expected to make. But it doesn’t matter, because even if they had offered me triple, I would’ve turned them down still. And here’s why:

My time—and my life—is worth far more than a bigger salary.

Your situation is unique, but mine looks like a wife and two kids. And they aren’t just a component of my life: they are my life. I could lose everything else in my life but still find a reason to smile if I had those three. Everything else is just gravy.

Self-employed life is tough, but it’s far from impossible. And I’d argue there are tons of people less qualified than you who pull off being self-employed every single year. Even among a pandemic. But I digress.

I turned down that job offer because a healthy work-life balance, which I’ve now refined over the years, is worth far more to me than a bigger lump sum in my bank account.

And I hope that you’d say the same for yourself if given the opportunity.

Everyone pushes the idea of more money = more happiness. I don’t buy it. I’m making more money than I ever have (at any job or at any other point in my self-employed life), and while I’m happier now than I have been before, money has very little to do with it.

My current job means at 5 o’clock, I stop answering the phone. Weekends are primarily reserved for family first. I schedule as much as humanly possible to happen during business hours exclusively, and I guard my personal time with ferocity.

I have new hobbies and interests that I’ve adopted that I get to make time for most evenings. And—best yet—they have nothing to do with how I make a living.

All of those things—having a life!—are worth far more to me than money.

The job I was offered at the beginning of this post would’ve considerably tipped the scales of my life in favour of work once again, and I am not interested in a lifestyle like that. In fact, it’s one of the reasons I’m getting out of wedding photography (though that’s a whole separate blog post on its own).

All the money in the world is meaningless if you’re miserable at the little time you have to spend it.

I’ve not met many genuinely happy rich people. Have you?

I hope I’ve caused you to think a little more seriously about what you value, and why money shouldn’t always be at the top of that list.

I recently heard the following quote and it’s stuck with me. I hope it does with you too.

You know why the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence?

Because it’s fertilized with bullsh*t.