I believe that one’s worth is highly dependent on the society they live in and what that society or public thinks of them. You have often heard people speak about knowing their worth and I like to ask them: If you know your worth tell me what it is.

The word worth is closely linked with value, for example: What is this ring worth? An answer could be: It’s worth millions. This use of the word worth is correct but there are other ways we can use the word worth that might not be related to monetary value. If we happened to get trapped on an island and there was one of us who knew how to fish and hunt they would be worth more than the pretty girl who spends all day sleeping. In that case worth is credited according to usefulness and once again the group that values this skill attaches worth to the person with those skills.

Unless you discuss worth in monetary terms your worth will always be determined by those you interact with. Their impression of you lends weight to your worth. So when we have people who claim to know their worth what exactly do they mean? Earlier I was discussing this with some ladies online and hinted they were using the word worth in the wrong context.

I pushed a little and one replied that worth had more to do with principles and not compromising them and so forth. I replied that this school of thought spoke more values than value, value and worth being the same in a manner of speaking you find that values and self-worth are kind of similar too.

So when people say they know their worth, while I understand their sentiment, they themselves can never tell you what they are worth. Saying I know what I stand for or I know what I believe in is far more apt than: I know my worth. It is knit-picking but if we were to be pedantic about it we could use an example of a mother who works as a cleaner. To her employer she is not worth much perhaps, she is viewed as expendable and if she got ill or died Lord knows the employers would just replace her. The same lady can get home and be the breadwinner which means she is worth a lot more to her family than she is to her employer.

Using the word worth in those contexts is not wrong and it doesn’t place a monetary value on that person. It speaks to how others view them and assign worth, as such I will go back to my original assertion.  One cannot determine their own worth; we must tell you what we think you are worth to us. Just as ivory is worth a lot to some Asians the same ivory hardly holds value to some Africans. So is the ivory really worth much if anything?

Removing the ‘self’ from self-worth changes the meaning completely. Self-worth is concerned with self-esteem and how one views themself in relation to the world. Worth on the other hand is how the world views you.

p.s  I didn’t think I could explain this fully via the tweets @IllanaG_06 @Melfunktion and @ma_nzi