Picasso’s napkin…

Have you ever heard the story of Picasso and the napkin? Legend has it that Picasso was at a Paris market when an admirer approached and asked if he could do a quick sketch on a paper napkin for her. Picasso politely agreed, promptly created a drawing, and handed back the napkin — but not before asking for a million Francs.

The lady was shocked: “How can you ask for so much? It took you five minutes to draw this!”
“No”, Picasso replied, “It took me 40 years to draw this in five minutes.”

As you will have sussed, the moral of the story is not to undervalue yourself.  All too often I get asked for my advice or my time for free. All too often I say yes. But I need to stop. We all do. Think about it. Do you not already give so much of yourself away for free? I know I do. In my family life but also in my work life.

Here at Scene & Herd we give people a great podcast to listen to almost every week. For free. We produce these weekly newsletters, which are often packed with knowledge that we’ve gained over decades in this sector. For free. We do a daily Tip of the Day on social media. For free. We speak at events. For free. We volunteer for great charities. For free.

We just can’t fit in, or justify, doing anything else without income. And neither should you.

We have all gained the skills and knowledge that we possess over many years and it has a VALUE.  If we give too much of this knowledge away we are devaluing ourselves as well as creating the expectation that we’ll do even more without being paid for our time and our expertise.

If, hand on heart, you know that you ALREADY do enough for free then make a decision right here and right now, that you will not add anything else to that list.

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