Many people chase money at work and wake up tired, disconnected, and unsure if it’s all worth it. In this article, Jef Menguin reframes wealth at work as meaning, energy, growth, and contribution—not just pay. Read it and share it with your team so you start building a career that pays the bills and feels right.
I used to earn ₱18,000 a month as a teacher. On paper, it was an eight-hour job. In real life, it was eight hours in school, then four more hours at home—lesson prep, checking papers, fixing tomorrow—work that had to be done but was never paid.
I was tired all the time, yet I kept telling myself, “This is normal. This is meaningful.” It was meaningful, yes. But it also showed me a truth I avoided for years: I was working hard inside a system that rewarded me mainly for time, not value.
Pause here.
Have you ever looked at your work and thought, “If I keep doing this the same way, my life will not change”?
Employment is good, but it is not the only model
In the Philippines, many of us were trained to believe that earning money means being employed. Get hired, stay stable, feed your family. That model has helped many people, and I respect it. Employment can be a strong foundation.
But it becomes a problem when it becomes your only imagination. When you cannot imagine a different way to create value, you cannot see the opportunities already waiting for you.
So let me ask you a question that might shift your lens. If you could design your work, what would you want your work to do for your life?
The game matters more than the grind
Work is not just a job you keep. Work is a game you choose.
Some games reward hours. You get paid when you show up, and you stop getting paid when you stop. Other games reward outcomes. You get paid because you solved a problem, improved a result, or made something useful.
And there are games that multiply value. You create something once—an idea, a framework, a tool, a piece of writing—and it keeps helping people long after you made it.
Different games. Different rules.
So the question is not only “Am I working hard?” The question is “Am I playing a game that can grow my value?”
₱60,000 taught me what value feels like
Today, I still teach.
But I teach on stage.
And I can charge ₱60,000 for a speaking engagement.
That number is not the point. The point is the shift underneath it. I did not stop being a teacher. I changed the way my work creates value. The audience became larger. The outcome became clearer. The work became something people were willing to pay for because it solved a real need.
This is the part people often miss.
You can change your identity. And sometimes you need to reposition your value.
So think about your work. What part of what you already do could create more value if it reached more people?
The Facebook argument that woke me up
I also realized something about writing.
I see people on Facebook who write with incredible passion—especially when debating politics. They write long posts, long comments, long replies. They invest hours. I used to do that too.
Then one day, I caught myself spending two hours writing to people who did not care about my ideas and did not care about me. I was trying to win an argument, not build anything useful.
That moment gave me a clear picture.
Those two hours could have been spent writing for people who actually want what I know. Those two hours could have been spent writing books, not comments. And writing books could increase the perceived value of my work tenfold—not because of marketing, but because writing makes your thinking visible, shareable, and repeatable.
Let’s pause again.
Where are you spending your best thinking hours right now?
The shift you need to see early
Keep this in mind: wealth grows when your work creates more value for more people.
Not by exhaustion.
Not by longer days.
By value.
When you see this, you stop thinking of work as survival and start thinking of work as design. You begin to ask better questions about your skills, your leverage, and your path.
If your work is only a way to get paid, you will always feel constrained.
If your work is a way to create value, you begin to see options.
Your move this week
This week, choose one two-hour block and treat it as deep work. Protect it. No scrolling. No reacting. No unnecessary meetings with your phone.
Then use that block to create one small asset that increases your value.
It can be a one-page proposal that solves a problem at work. It can be a short article that teaches one useful lesson. It can be the outline of a book chapter. It can be a simple framework you document. It can be a case study of a result you helped create.
Small is fine.
But it must be real.
Now ask yourself one question before you finish. If you do this every week for a year, what would you have built?
Make it stick without making it heavy
At the end of each week, write three short answers.
What value did I create this week? Who did it help? What would increase my value next week?
Those questions train your mind to see opportunity. They also train your identity. You stop being someone who only completes tasks. You become someone who creates value.
The 30-day line
On your Nine Life Circles Map, find Work & Wealth.
Write: “For the next 30 days, I will play to win in Work & Wealth by ________.”
Choose one small shift for this week.
Do it.
Then notice what changes in how you see your work.
After this, we move to Home & Environment, because your space either supports deep work—or quietly drains it.
If you’re tired of knowing but not doing…
Let’s make one shift easier to live daily.
→ Shift Experiences
