Pride vs ego

Someone asked me today if i'd ever work for free, if it's in a super-large scale, prestigious MNC that everyone's dying to be part of. My answer was "NO". Why? Yes i may be money-minded but the real reason was not because it's money that i am pursuing but really, my personal belief that "good people never come cheap". One may not be the most expensive but the best people should never offer themselves to work for free. Well, if u can't even believe in yourself, then how to do u expect the person who's planning to hire u, believe in your abilities and capabilities? I am not demeaning "work for free" but it really depends on what u are working for free for. If it's for your own business or volunteering for a good cause, perfectly justified! But for the corporate world, i don't think so. The value that others pay u to work for them is a symbolic representation of your value of work. So if u work for free, others will not value u too, since they aren't making any "contribution" to your value of work.

There's a very fine line between ego and pride. When i rejected the idea of "working for free", I got rebuked as being ego-crazy when i said that i'll never work for free (unless it's for my own business). But nope, i disagree that this is ego. Ego to me, is the fear of being seen as weak or less powerful. For example, refusing to ask for help when clearly, the help of others is required to finish the task. In my term, not wanting to work for free is purely PRIDE, not ego.

I remember some homosexual dude once said to me "there's no such thing as cheap and good. There's only cheap OR good. U gotta choose one." Haha, come to think of it, how true. Good things ain't cheap and cheap things may not be good.