The Wandering Pro | Career Podcast By SK NEXUS
The only Podcast in Pakistan diving deep into Career and Business "for you". Get real experience based mindset unlock content, helping you upskill your career or upscale your business.
Hosted by Saqib Tahir: https://bio.saqibtahir.com/
Site link: https://sknexus.com/twp
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The Wandering Pro | Career Podcast By SK NEXUS
TWP 007 - Validating Your Value - The Missing Piece Behind Becoming Irreplaceable in Your Career
People understand the concept of providing value but seldom understand how to validate it. You work day and night being the best asset, but when the time comes, you'll just be another headcount on the chopping block. In today's episode I want to cover how to build a strong base, which can ideally make you irreplaceable at any job...or better yet irresistible for any new opportunities.
Hosted by Saqib Tahir
Read companion summary article: https://sknexus.com/twp007/
Further learning and references
https://sknexus.com/why-professionals-fail/
https://sknexus.com/validating-your-value-as-a-professional/
https://sknexus.com/adding-more-value-to-your-services/
https://sknexus.com/job-perks-and-benefits/
As always -
Thank you for listening, please send any questions or feedback to podcast@sknexus.com
See you next time.
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Welcome to another episode of The Wandering Pro. So, so far, as you know, we have discussed a lot of topics in this series, like how to define your niche, what is the difference between passion and paycheque, how to learn new things. And then in the last episode, we covered that soft skills, out of all the skills, are, generally speaking, better in the long run. Because you will get technical skills because of on-job practice, because of learning, whatever your job role is. But the soft skills take a little time to learn, right? So you say, man, I have learned everything. I know skills, I know soft skills, I know hard skills, I am very proficient at my job. What is the benefit of all this? So the purpose of this podcast is actually that it will be a series in which we are exploring, right? Name, The Wandering Pro, you're wandering around. That how do you connect all this learning, or whatever I am sharing with you, how can we connect all this in a cohesive manner and how can we use it in our professional career or if we want to do business tomorrow. So for that, it is very important to understand a concept, which is value. I have mentioned it in many episodes before, and like in my other podcast, Tech Made Fun, and anyway in blogs, etc. You will often see that I use the word value. And the reason is that at the end of the day, whether it is your career or your business or tomorrow you sell a product, everything comes down to value. What customer value are you providing? Or if you are an employee, what employee value are you providing? Or if you are a business, I guess what social value are you providing? Again, like regardless of it, like value is a very important concept to understand. Because a person works so hard, does so much work, teaches so much, and at the end, if he is not providing value as a result of all that, it's kind of wasted, right? In today's episode, I want to go over, first of all, what is the basic definition of value? Secondly, a very key aspect that many people miss whenever they think about value. So let's get into it. First of all, if you want to understand value, then there are two fundamental basics, right? As I said, different situations will apply different things, but fundamentally speaking, there are two basic rules for providing value. And those rules are that you provide more value if you do something which is extra or more for the same amount of cost. And I'm not just talking about the cost of money, it could be time cost, it could be financial cost, it could be exchange of cost also. But in summary, what I mean to say is that the first basic of providing more value is that you're doing something extra for the same amount of cost or input. And the second basic of how you can provide more value is you can do the exact same thing or you can give the exact same output which everyone else is doing, but at a lesser cost or a lesser input requirement. So by listening to this, you won't think that oh, it's about money, so if he's doing this job for 10,000, then I'll do that job for 5,000. Or if he's doing this job for 10,000, then I'll do that double job for 10,000. Although this has a meaning, but generally speaking, this equation applies to everything. But bringing it back to career specifically, yes, in career, this means that if you're an employee, then you have other employees, right? Some are senior to you, some are junior, so on and so forth. So when you look around, do you know that are you more valuable or are you less valuable, right? Because what happens here, and this is what I mean, not just in Pakistan, but in the whole world, in any corporate company, right? Unfortunately, you're a headcount to most people. They say you're a resource, you're a human resource. So in order to stand out, I believe showcasing your value is the best way. Because if you successfully do that, what happens is that when the time comes, you'll have to take a raise or you'll have to renegotiate your contract. Or let's just say you have an idea and you want to sell it. I want to do this job for the company. So they'll listen to you more or there will be more chances, right? And that's just how simple it gets, that in order to succeed in a lot of places in life, as I said, in your career, business, providing more value is the base. Like if you learn to do this, then nothing else comes close. But it's very easy to say and it's very difficult to understand and do. Because look, now I'm talking about my culture. So our culture here, if you have a job in a company in Pakistan, or especially if you're in the manager's shoes, then you have to understand that there is a very common line here that everyone says, Oh, brother, I'm running the whole company on my head. If I'm not here, this company will close. Here, brother, no one does as much work as I do. Here, brother, it's just me. And the rest of the 100 people I've hired are dead weight. Unfortunately, it's a very common sentiment in our corporate culture because everyone here thinks that it's just me. It's an eccentric mindset, right? People think it's very important and nothing will work without them. And what happens tomorrow? When it's time for layoffs or downsizing, these people are the first to get cut off. These people are the first to get fired. But as a side effect of that, there are other types of people who get fired who are on the other side of the spectrum who are providing a lot of value, okay? But they're not broadcasting it or documenting it or communicating it properly. So what I've seen in my experience, working in managerial positions, in corporate and so on and so forth, that those poor people who are providing a lot of value to the company, but they don't have the skill set or they don't know what to do to showcase that value, they get fired. And on the other side, the people who are loudmouths, who just show off and say, it's just me, it's just me, but actually they don't do any work. You know that scene where people are busy and do nothing, those people also get fired. So here's the same missing piece, regardless of who you are, I'm not judging whether you're providing value or not. Let's say you are. Let's assume, okay? But what I've seen, the main issue is that if you're providing value, most people do a very bad job of getting it validated. And that's what the missing piece is. Value and validation. As long as you're providing that value, you're not getting the validation that yes, I see you, that you're providing value. You're not gonna stand out. You're just gonna be another headcount. You're just gonna be another statistic on the next layoffs. So now you're saying, okay, I know what the basics of value are, and why it's important to provide value, but I don't know what validation is, what's new that I haven't heard of yet. So basically, if you think of it in a very simple way, then you have a spectrum in your mind, you have a spectrum going on. On one side of the line, there are people who are very valuable, who provide value, but they don't know how to validate their value, they don't know how to tell, they don't know how to be noticed. And on the other side of the spectrum, on the other side of the line, there are people who keep screaming, we do everything, the company runs on us, but actually they're not providing any value, they don't know how to work. So we have to combine the positives of both of them, hence value and validation. So this, like many other lessons and things we talk about here, is just another mindset shift you need to have. And what is mindset? Brother, you go to any company, you started a job, from the first day, your goal should be, that brother, I want to be one of zero, okay? What is one of zero? One of zero is basically that, there is a concept of extremists, that I will do the work, that no one else is doing in this company. Or I will do the work, which will be in a very unique combination, and it will have a maximum ROI. But don't take the wrong meaning of this, that I will start doing double work, or I will start working for 16 hours instead of 8 hours. Because again, as I said, working hard doesn't get you anywhere, working smart does. Because if working hard would get you anywhere, then all the skilled laborers would be billionaires, right? They would say that there is a labor shortage in America, and this is what is happening there. But besides the point, here we have a labor shortage. So here at least, working hard doesn't get you further, you need to work smart to some extent. So now let's get into some tips and tricks, or whatever you want to call it, for combining value and validation, in whichever company you work for. And these are from my experience, having worked with more than 5 to 10 companies, and this works in all of them. The interesting thing is, that I am doing all these episodes, which I am giving tips and tricks now, I started making this a CEO playbook, that how to get into any company, and how to get directed with the CEO. But I think that is a little more advanced concept, and for the people who are listening to this series, it will be a little complicated for them, that they can directly execute at that level. All of that, maybe we will discuss it tomorrow, in a later episode. But in today's episode, I will tell you how to set its building blocks, or foundations, that you have to go to any company, how can you stand out, how can you validate your value, and how you can provide just extra value, which you weren't before. Okay, first of all, build your network. And the definition of build your network, unfortunately, has become that by generating a big connection request, you can add connections. No, building a network means that, you have to build a connection with the right people. And that's the key difference, right? If you go to any office, say hi, hello, make friends, make acquaintances, that's all good, go into the culture. But learn to identify, who are the top players, okay? I'll give you my own example. When I went to tech support, and my training was complete, I made a good connection with the trainers. So always, with your mentors and teachers, you should have a good friendship. Because look, they are helping you succeed, and there is no ill intent in that. Unless there is a specific issue or something, you should always try to make a habit of, connecting with those people, along with this company. Whoever is teaching you your role, or if you are shadowing someone, whoever is working in that company before you, you have to keep in touch with them. So that's step one. But initially, like, stage one of the network is that, the person who has onboarded you, and taught you the work, you have to keep in touch with him, as much as you can. But the next stage is, learning to identify, who are the key players, in any company, right? When I joined tech support, I was like, okay, there are 250 people here, a lot of people. But the 250 people, is divided into 10 teams. And each team has a team lead, and then there are 10 team leads, 3 floor managers, or whatever you want to call them. So I identified that, okay, now I'm going to start identifying with 250 people. Impossible. And if I start identifying with 10 of their leads, slightly more possible. 10 people are still a lot, and then like, you know, 3 managers are on top of them, if I can make one out of them, that is good. And now you're listening to this, and you're like, I'm going to start doing TC, or something like that. No, that's not the point. The point is, just to have a strategic approach towards, who you're going to connect with, and spend most of your time with, when you're on your job. Okay? Because this effort, the network building one, shouldn't be like, you've been in your job for 8 hours, or 4 hours, and started chatting. No, it's not like that. You just have to say, subconsciously, or unconsciously, put aside the strategy, that, oh, okay, this is a team lead, let's just say hi, hello to him, let's just talk to him. So, whoever is the most relevant, to your current role, you have to make it with them. So when I was in support, there were 250 people, 10 leads, 3 managers, I also thought the same. Because it was, when you go in support, they give you the most basic tier, in which you solve general queries. Because I was more interested in hardware, because of my tech background. So the teams that were responsible, for the hardware of that company, there were 4 teams. I said, okay, my interest aligns with them, so I'll take these leads, and chat with them, and align my interest. What happened was, in 2-3 months, those leads, in the eyes of my good reputation, that, oh, okay, this guy has a tech background, he understands hardware, let's bring him in my team, and specialize him in our team. The benefit of that is, because you get off from general support, you only get specialized queries, so your workload gets easier. Obviously, those queries are more complex than general queries, but the 40 calls you have to pick up in a day, let's say, now it's 20. And likewise, I went to another team, but you get the idea. The idea is, that you have to identify, that, okay, this is my aspiration, this is my background, these are the things I want. Who are the people, who will allow me the best chance, that I can progress this path quickly. I think this is a mistake, that most people make, whenever they go to a company, that they pick me up randomly, pick me up at will, start spending time with me at will, which is okay. Like I said, there's nothing wrong with that. But just keep in mind, like let's say, 10-20% in mind, that these people, they have to give a little more time, or they have to give a little more value, or build a little more relationship with them. And the two ways you can do it, I'll tell you that. That's part two. Part two is that, see, in my experience, the best way to build reputation, or let's call it rapport with people, is to ask questions, and learn to ask good questions. In university, they tell you, there are no stupid questions, like the one I studied in school. That's absolutely BS. Yes, there are stupid questions, learn not to ask them. Ask good questions. And for me, good questions are always, that when you say hi or hello to a person, you know them, you've chatted with them, you'll pick up on, what are their interest points, what is their passion, or what do they do on the side, or what is their background. Ask them questions about two things. What do they do on the job, what is their role, what are they good at, how do they insure, what do they do. And then, ask them off-job questions, if they have any part-time hobbies, or passion, or follow a team, so on and so forth, right? And like, I don't want to turn this into an intro to how to make best friends course, but you get an idea. If you talk about things, people care about, and ask questions regarding that, they will answer. And they will talk to you about it, they'll eat your ears. Because you might get annoyed sometimes, that stop it, I don't want to listen anymore. So, obviously, you have to balance it a bit, but in my experience, the best way to get anyone talking to you, is to ask them about their interests, their passions, or when you're on the job, what do you do here, what are your responsibilities, how do you face issues, so on and so forth. Again, if I keep up my example, in that, what I used to do, I used to go to the hardware tech leads, and I used to ask questions about the product, like, how does it work, what kind of queries do it get, what are the common issues, so on and so forth. And what happens, when they want to give an answer, I would connect it to my background. Okay, yes, there's a lot of Wi-Fi router issues here, in the case of SES, there's this Wi-Fi router, which has an old certification, it has a lot of signal issues, I've seen Linus' videos, it had a lot of issues. I mean, you just make conversation. And what happens, you're having a good conversation, but at the same time, in their eyes, your value is increased. Okay, this guy knows about tech, he has seen videos, so on and so forth. So, if you remember, back in episode 2, 3, what I talked about, its knowledge curation. So, if you're in a specific field, you curate its knowledge, and you passively watch those things, then it helps here, right? That's the whole purpose, why this is a series. If you curate the knowledge in that episode, you make those feeds, after two months, you'll have so much material to talk to people, that you'll never run out of it. You'll always have something to talk about, with people who matter. That's one way, you can connect and build rapport with people. The other thing is, if you're building rapport with seniors, now this is about seniors, your managers, your leads, or generally speaking, the people who are more dear to you in the company, right? You have to set goals with them, and get feedback. You have to be open and honest with them, that look, I'm doing this job, I'm really passionate about it, okay? And you have to be passionate, to some extent, for every job. Even if your heart doesn't agree with that job, but look, you're going in that career, you're walking on that path, there needs to be some level of passion, right? You're like, look, I genuinely want to improve at what I do, so what would be three items of feedback, if you worked there for a month or two, that I can improve on? Or what should be some of the goals I should set, for myself, right? And you're not saying that, you're making a report, or you're making yourself accountable to them, or something like that. It's just about, asking people who are more senior than you, that okay, you've seen my work, I've been working for a month or two, is there any feedback for me? If you're not getting that, or if you're getting too much, then set some goals around it, right? You have to set those yourself, and there generally will be goals, around what you want to do. Like I said, when I went to tech support, my immediate goal was, that I want to go to a hardware team, because my passion is in the hardware team. When I went to the hardware team, I was still very tired of picking up calls, so there used to be one team, the enterprise team. What they used to do was, they used to get one or two calls a day, but they used to get very heavy calls, like, there was a call for 100 devices, because they were enterprise companies, they were bigger clients. So I knew that, it's a very stressful job there, because those queries are very big, and very complicated, because I was comfortable with the hardware, I was uncomfortable with picking up calls, I was fed up with it, at this point, I had easily picked up 3000-4000 calls in that company. So I was like, I want to reduce the number of calls, so my next goal was, to somehow get into the enterprise team. Right, that's the goal I set for myself. And then, through taking feedback from other people, like, what should I improve? I eventually did land up into that enterprise team, I think within 6 months of joining that company. And in that company, 1000 people were working, it wasn't a small company, only 250 people were working in support. And that company has been open for 10 years, it's still open. It was very unprecedented, that someone could switch 2 teams in 6 months. So I went to the hardware team first, and then went to the enterprise team. In fact, usually, there was a rule in the company, that they didn't allow switching between teams, before a year. But because I was taking these steps, I was ensuring that I keep on the lookout, who to talk to, how to build a reputation. I was able to switch teams twice, which later I found out, they do allow some people, but it's the same thing, those who are valuable, who have a good reputation, who know how to work, because in enterprise, they want the top of the top people, right? Even though, in my joining batch, there were 25-30 more people, by the first or second week. Among them, there were people, whose calls were more than mine. Like, the number of calls I received, their satisfaction score was also higher than mine. Their work quality was also higher than mine, and they used overtime more than me. They genuinely worked harder than I did. But I got into enterprise, because I worked a bit smarter than them. So, my other things were also decent. I'm not saying, my satisfaction score was also 90%. I also used to do overtime sometimes. But it wasn't the top of the top. Like, I wouldn't say that I was top 10, or top 5 in that batch. But, the rest of the people, they were just hell bound on focusing, that I have to do this thing more and more. They increased the quantity. Whereas, I was like, okay, I will do this thing well, but on top, I will take some extra strategic steps, because of which my goals will be met. And after 6 months, I was sitting in enterprise. And those people, I think, who came in my batch, most of them, were still on calls, I think, for 1.5 years. But hopefully, you understand what I'm trying to convey here. That providing more value, has nothing to do with how much work you have done. It's all about, how much work you have done, how well you have done, and then, how well you have communicated, how well you have built a rapport with those people, how well they know, whether you have done your work or not. Which brings us to the next step, which is a little hard to communicate. Just bear with me. So, I've mentioned this before also, that make a habit, in your life, just like that. So, like they say, if you want to live a successful life, or whatever, make a journaling habit. Write a journal diary of your day. I think, that's nice. I also do this, or try to. But, in a job, especially, I think, documenting what you work on, is really important, and something that no one does. And then, at the end of every week, you have to write in three bullet points, what you have accomplished. Simple as that. And, you can adjust that template to any job role, and if there's any role, that you're not able to figure out, leave a comment below the video, I will reply to you, personally. I'll come and tell you what to do. But, the purpose here is that, when you make a habit of documenting every week, you've been in a company for 6 months, 8 months, a year. So, by the end of the year, you'll have 50 plus snippets, of what I've achieved every week, or what I've done, what projects I've worked on, what roles and responsibilities I've worked with, so on, so forth. And it has two purposes. One purpose is that, this is an excellent practice, if you want to build your portfolio tomorrow, or build an online presence. Episode coming soon, this was your teaser. But the second purpose is that, you have to identify patterns, right? When you learn to document your work every week, you'll see that there are some things, that are happening every week, or there are some trends, that are happening again and again. And, it will force you, to think of solutions, on how those things can be improved. I'll give you an example of this again. Again, I'll give it to the tech support job, because, just to keep it relevant. It was happening, in between there was a time, there was a lot of load, or something, I had to work on email, on email support. So, there were a lot of calls, and I think they stopped the calls, or something like that, I don't remember. So, they put me on email support, that these emails are coming, I have to reply to these emails. What I noticed, just after two weeks, because it's my habit, to document everything, and organize everything, that most emails, the 60-70% emails that are coming, they're all the same. There are the same problems, there are the same issues. And funnily enough, this company, how big it was, and how developed it was, they didn't have any like, auto responses, or templates, or anything like that. So, what I did, I took out my old emails, which I had written replies to the customers, at that time, chat, gpt, etc. nothing happened. So, I just like, manually, for a day, for 2-3 hours, for the weekend, I made an effort, I made 20-25 templates, which were commonly asked questions, on emails. And then I put the same placeholder, DL, insert name, and what used to happen, the email's response would always be that, you acknowledged the problem, then you said, this is the support from our article, you read this. So, it will always be like, a small introductory message, salutation, etc. and below, I gave the article links to them, that go and read this. And then, if that didn't solve it, then I would write at the end, that reply to us again. So, I made 15-20 templates, and kept them with me. And my work became very easy, in the next 1-2 weeks. Then, okay, I did this. How did this get validated? I provided extra value to this, that I became more efficient, I was replying to more emails, I was giving better information, there were less errors, because I was reusing the same template, and the queries were very normalized. So, I made it validate, that after 3 months, or after a few months, when I had left emails, the team that was responsible, to make the processes, and all that, they started the initiative, that I think, after 10 years, they realized that, we don't have templates there, we have to make templates. So, everyone was very excited, that okay, templates will be made, life will become easier. And I was sitting here, and thinking that, I had, by that point, I actually had 40-50 templates, because I kept on building my library. Now, the same happened here, So, instead of saying that, okay, thank you, this is very helpful, I will make it on this, I will do this, that started, that my work will be devalued, or my hard work will be wasted, or whatever, I had to show my 20-hour work, I did it in 200 hours, I won't be able to do that, because I got a shortcut, whatever the reason was, that burned. But her manager, who was almost, the second-in-command of the entire department, or was actually a person, she was also in the email chain, on which I was chatting, everything was discussed on email. So, she called me on the call, on Google Meet, that come today, and she saw my templates, and was like, bro, this is better than ours, give it to us, can we use this, is this fine, is there any problem? I said, sure, Jani, there is no issue, keep it. So, that's how, that effort, that passive effort, that I used to sit every week, and write my notes for 5-10 minutes, I got an idea from there, that I should make templates, and when I made the templates, it took a little effort, 2-3 hours, but at the end of the day, little did I know, that months later, there was a contest held, that we need a person in this team, and whoever wins that contest, will be able to, like, you know, join the team, and the benefit of that, is that you will be free from calls, no customer support, no calls, no email work, you come to our team, you come to process development. So, this process development team was there, and because, that senior manager, saw my work first, when I made the templates, she knew, that I had a good understanding, of the common issues of support, even though, in that contest, I think, I came in 3rd place, she still picked me, because my experience was there to show, and validate my value, and I left from there, a year before, by switching roles once again. Now, the story I'm telling you, it's not about, oh look, I'm such a fit guy, and look how I've switched roles. The reason I'm telling you this story, and it's a very important story to tell, that look, I'm in a company, where there are 250 people, where it's a law, that a person can't change his team, according to his will. In that kind of environment also, I did that, not once, not twice, but 3 times. And even, I got a salary increment, a year before, because of all these switches. I became a kind of, undocumented, illegal citizen of that company, because I had changed so many teams. And just because, of the simple things, I told you today, that I leveraged. In summary, those things were, if you go to a company, learn how to build the right network. Okay? Apart from chatting and friendship, understand that, who are the 5 to 10 people, you need to connect with, you need to learn with, and you need to grow with. Those people have to open your path. Identify those people, very early on, as soon as you join the company. Second thing was, asking for feedback, from your seniors. Okay? Ask for feedback openly. Don't feel bad. They are seniors, they are elders, and it's not necessary, that they give good feedback. Give feedback as you wish. Take feedback, and make a habit of taking feedback, every now and then, after every 1-2 weeks. And then, turn those feedbacks, into goals for yourself. Then came, learn how to document your work. And the purpose of this is not, that you have to micromanage yourself. The purpose of this is, that you build a good habit. Okay? Like you write a journal in your life, you write a journal in your work, at the end of the week, you just have to make a note. Shouldn't take more than, 10 to 20 minutes of your time. And lastly, once you do all these things, there will be problems, that need solving. And if you come up, with a solution for those, provide it to the stakeholders, present it to the stakeholders, and eventually, that might convert into, a good outcome for you. But all this is good, and it feels good to talk about it. But the sad reality for many is, that the companies, in which they are working, might not work at all. Or maybe they will. But the thing is, you'll never know until you try it. And that's the whole idea. You are providing more value, and then, you're taking all the necessary steps, to validate it. Right? So that people see it, and you provide the actual value. Right? So that is all, that is in your control. How is the company? How are the people? They are very toxic people. That is something, you can't control. And as I told you in the beginning, that there are things in your control, things out of your control. Blaming things, that aren't in your control, won't help you. You still have to put in the effort. You have to put in all the effort. You have to provide value. You have to provide value smartly. You don't just have to say, that I did a double job, and I'm proud of it. Because when you do all of this, you can easily do something, which I call, the all-in. Right? Or as I said, I've switched a lot of companies, and the reason I did was, I always used to do this. If it worked, my salary would double. If it didn't work, I would find a new job. You can always find a new job. Right? This mindset of people, that I'm stuck in this job, and I can't change it. And all that. As you know, in the IT tech industry especially, there are countless jobs. You can always switch. Otherwise, you can go into freelancing, which we will discover in future episodes. Just understand that, blaming the environment, is fine to an extent. But if you make it your excuse, then how many years will you make it? 5 years? 10 years? All this I told you about my tech support journey, is 6 years old now. I know people who are still making calls there, and they didn't do anything. And again, if they're fine doing that, Alhamdulillah, there's no problem. If people are fine doing their job, if that pays their bills, if that is what fulfills them, I have no problem with such people. I have a problem with people, who are stuck for 5-6 years, and then whenever you talk to them, they're always complaining. My job, my company, there's no growth, nothing. If there's no growth for 5-6 years, then probably the reason is you. So yeah, what is the all-in? Which I mentioned a little later. This is a little advanced concept, like I said in the first episode. Maybe we'll discover it fully, in some later episode. But the all-in is, as they say, I don't want to use the word gambling, but that's what's coming to my mind. You just put everything you did on the line. You're like, look, I've been working in this company for so long, I've provided all this value, look, I have a history of documented notes, I've pushed these efforts, I've solved these problems, I've done so much. Now, this is my goal in this company, help me reach that goal, or I'm gonna find a new job. And that goal could be, that I should double my salary. Not 10%, 20%, double it. Okay? That is why it's the all-in. You have to bet high. And that's not the point. People must be listening, this is a business owner, and they'll say, it's good, you're giving advice, people should keep the company hostage. No, no, no. This is for people who are actually providing more value, and validating it. That's the missing piece, right? Those who are just providing value, and not bothering to validate, don't care about them. And those who are just making noise, and not providing any value, don't care about them either. I'm talking about those who are doing both. So if you're a business owner listening this also, you need to understand that if this person is doing both, you need to respect their ask. And then negotiation and all that is later. But that is the all-in. You bet really high, or else you're like, okay, I'm leaving. Because at the end of the day, any CEO, or any client, or customer, in any situation in life, they want two things, right? They want more value, and they want long-term stability. If you as an employee provide the maximum value, and validate it, and then tell them, that I'll stay here for the next five years, if you help me meet my goals. Those could be financial goals, those could be job description goals, or something in the mix. But if the company helps you reach those goals, you stick there longer, and it's a mutual benefit. So I have one question for you. Do you agree with the part where I say especially, that maybe you, listening right now, are providing value, but you don't know how to validate it. And that's why you never proceed or progress in life. And all your hard work goes to waste. Or, like I said, you're the type of person who's doing double work, but not smart work. What do you think? And like every episode, I have a quote at the end. Basically, for people who are scared of switching companies. You can't expect to be valued by someone who can't recognize the value in others. As always, if you like listening to this, please send any questions or feedback to podcast.sknexus.com. And today, after show, in the car section, I want to cover some sad news. Okay, so recently, I did an episode on FinTech Landscaping in Pakistan. On the Tech Made Fun Podcast. Which, as I said earlier, was a little semi-viral. And the premise of that was basically, the Papara company acquired Sadapay, which is a local bank. And I have some concerns about it, obviously, right? And last week, there was news that Sadapay's very good workforce was laid off. And I think, at least 50 people are documented. And a Google Sheet is going around, which I'll post on my show link at the top. Please look into it. If you know someone who needs such talent, and who is a very respectable talent, let me tell you, an app like Sadapay, in Pakistan, probably, no one else has it. Yes, they had issues. I'm not saying it was perfect. But if you go look at the digital product landscape of Pakistan, it was one of the best apps in recent history. Which is stable, the user experience is unmatched, the service is good, everything is fine. And again, I'm not saying there were no issues. But, let's say, 4 out of 5 stars. So yeah, the people who made this app, they are now looking for a job. So if you know someone, or if you're looking for talent, or if you just want to support, I would highly recommend you to take that Google Sheet. Look at it, there are people in it, their resumes, everything is there. Here, you can post that Google Sheet link on your personal network. It would mean a lot. And I want to take this opportunity to talk about acquisitions, a little bit. Because, like I talked about in the TechMateFun episode, and you have to listen to that. That here, in the startup ecosystem, it often happens that a big company comes, and it acquires a small company. Now, if you're in a company, which has been acquired, please understand that your days are numbered now. Because what happens is, how acquisitions work is, that the big companies, they already have the infrastructure, they already have people, they already have the things they need to run a business. As soon as they acquire your company, their first purpose in life is to cut off the cost. Any cost. Human cost, tool cost, hosting cost, infrastructure cost. The first step after acquisition is always cost cutting. Because that is an unnecessary cost, right? Let's say, you have a marketing department. An acquisition company also has a marketing department. Why would they want two marketing departments? They'll simply get rid of.
