This week I want to give you one of the most impactful lessons I learned that requires my boldness whenever I apply it. It’s this: to never undervalue myself.

I think it's very easy for any one of us in certain situations to feel we are not deserving enough. We also underestimate the value other people ascribe to us. We ask for less money, salary or equity or opportunity, maybe even love. And we don’t receive our full value. And that even affects what we believe our value is.

Let me give you one example that was quite significant for me. I was offered a consulting opportunity by this university to prepare a very detailed business plan for a new project. I knew it would have been fairly easy for me to do, because it was exactly in my field of expertise and experience.

That week I was talking to my coach, and I told him about the project, and that I was thinking about only charging $5,000 because it wasn't going to take me a lot of time.

And his first question was, “Who else could do this for them?” And my answer was, “No one that I know of.” “So,” he said, “Why not ask for $10,000?”

I thought about it seriously, in part because my coach was the one who had first told me I should never be undervaluing myself. (I love coaches. As painful as their feedback can be!)I tumbled around my pricing strategy in my head and decided and thI should probably ask for $20,000 for this project. This university wasn't broke, and I'm good at what I do. I have 30 years of experience in what they required.

In the end, what I finally asked for was $25,000.

And they didn't even blink. They accepted it without negotiation. In fact, three months after I completed the project, they came back with another project for another $25,000.

Imagine if I had said $10,000. They certainly would have accepted it and definitely wouldn’t have offered more. And I probably would have been okay with it. And I would have been okay with it a second time, too. But I would have made $20,000 instead of $50,000. Big difference!

That taught me how easy it was to undervalue myself, and how I had to never do it. I could have easily been overbidding that university job, and I might have had to reduce my offer. But then I would know that I reached the top value. Maybe I should have asked for $35,000 just to make sure!

Let me ask you, where are you undervaluing yourself? Is it in deals? Opportunities? Investments? Relationships? Everywhere?



The only way to know is to stretch yourself, push yourself, take the risk. In short, believe in yourself and project confidence in what you are worth. And many times people will just say, “Yes.”