Photo by Avi Richards on Unsplash

It’s Easier To 10x Your Income Than It Is To Double It.

“The eager-beaver employee expends extra effort to make a mark but soon learns that it doesn’t scale.” — Seth Godin

My palms were sweaty. I hoped my coworkers wouldn’t see my sweaty armpits.

I stared at the door down the hall, for the 40th time that morning. My boss’ door.

The door of the person who was about to give me a raise!

…I hoped.

I’d been preparing for weeks. No, months — I knew I had to have undeniable evidence months in advance for why I deserved a raise. I’d been carefully, meticulously grooming all my metrics and numbers for this fateful day.

The top of the hour came. Outwardly cool but inwardly swallowing my heart that was attempting to leap into my throat, I knocked on my boss’ door.

20 minutes later, I came out.

Defeated.

She hadn’t given me a raise. I wasn’t asking for much — I had asked for a 5% raise, realistically expecting 3%. But I wasn’t given anything, not even a measly 1%.

Maybe next fiscal quarter, she’d said. Your annual raise is coming up, let’s wait for that.

I was angry. I’d spent months preparing for this. I knew I deserved it.