Do not short-sell yourself

My friend and I were scheduled to meet for a day of shopping (just a pair of jeans because my friend is a fashionista) and we agreed on meeting at a certain time and a central place. I happened to arrive at our meeting place a couple of minutes before the scheduled time and I saw an artist on the side of the street with amazing visual art portraits and I was drawn to his work, it seemed authentic.

Just like that I met Sweet Potato (The artist’s name), he saw me approach his work, I said no word as I stared at this painting. I was drawn to it. A painting of three women. It had a different meaning to me.

Sweet Potato and I started discussing the painting, he was trying to get me to buy the painting, not realising that I had already made up my mind about it. All he had to do was engage me on the story behind his amazing work. As I paid no attention to his attempt in getting me to buy the painting, he started giving me a discount on his amazing work. At this, I showed no interest nor signs of buying the painting and he went on to further offer discounts. At this point, my interest is in discussing the painting and that is all I needed him to engage me on because I had already decided to purchase his work. I already had an idea of where I was going to hang it at my apartment. I loved it. As cliche as this sounds, I loved it at first sight.

By the time I decided to engage Sweet Potato on the costs of this painting, he had decided on what cost would be suited for this work. I bought the artwork. My heart was at peace with the seemingly impulsive purchase of this painting.

At this time, my friend whom I was waiting for had arrived and we drove off, and I could not help but wonder on how many of us compromise our worth and the value we bring to the world on the basis that we want other people to buy into us. How fixated are we to being accepted by the masses that we miss the reasons for our existence? How do we find ourselves settling for what we think the next person is willing to offer based on the internal conclusions that we have made before even discussing value with them?

How would you avoid compromising your worth for the sake of acceptance?

I am here to learn and to refresh others.

Itumeleng

Imzimba blogger