Money, Money, Money, Money…. MONEYYYY MOONNNEEEYYYY (or compliments, those are nice too)

I’m not even gonna wait to link to it. Would you rather be praised or paid? is one of the best HMB lenses yet. It’s wonderfully simple, yet you can spend the rest of your life thinking about the answer of the question.

The basic premise is would you prefer hearing praise for something you have done, or receive a small amount of money. Like, lets say you do a TPS report at work would you rather your boss come praise you, and I mean honestly wholeheartedly tell you that you are doing really good work. Or would you rather get your check at the end of the week and see $5 added on with the note of “TPS report done.”

It’s a really tough question. Because, as humans living in this modern world, we require both. I need to hear I am doing a good job, and the lack of any comments on my recent posts is proof positive of that! But, at the same time, if someone were to send me an email like “here is $10 for your blog” I would be like HELLS YEAH! I mean, $10 probably means more to me than most people, because I am one poor mofo, but still, money is nice.

But I don’t know, if someone were to leave a comment on my blog like “Mort I think you are a really incredible writer and I can’t wait to read your posts everyday” it would really, really mean a lot to me. It would fuel me for a long time, much more than the $10 I got from a random email that I spent on a pack of smokes and a diet orange soda.

Some people don’t care much about their work though, so that will be a factor for them. My lovely girlfriend, for instance, works because she has to, and she does a really great job (or at least she has a lot of stories about how everyone there loves her). But it strikes me that she could live without all of that. She works and works hard to make money, not to have people tell her she is doing well. She wants to make money so she can enjoy herself outside of work.

Where I, on the other hand, work for the personal satisfaction. My job is a major part of my life (I work in a group home taking care of autistic adults, and I am also a freelance writer with some projects cooking). I absolutely LOVE these things and they are very personal to me. Neither pays amazing, in fact my lovely and intelligent girlfriend makes more than twice what I do in a year, but I get such satisfaction out of them. And the satisfaction comes from hearing that what I am doing is good. I want the people I take care of to love me. I want my readers (and editors, bosses, etc) to really like and care about what I write.

Would I do these jobs without compliments? Yeah, I think I would, but honestly it wouldn’t be as fulfilling. I thrive off of attention and hearing good things, my self esteem needs it. And that means more to me than $10.

Unless, of course, I’m dead broke and out of cigarettes. Then you can take your compliment and shove it up your keyster, GIMME SOME MONEY FOR SMOKES!

Where do you fall on this issue? The lens is already taking off. Join in on the fun.