As most of you know, I travel to, stay in and work from different countries but in the recent years, I have set up camp in my birthplace to which I return after each trip. Just like in various others, I have taken jobs in Zagreb, Croatia that were all speaking, workshop giving and seminar teaching engagements.

I recently wanted to manifest another collaboration opportunity here. Let us begin.

As I have said before, the first opportunity won’t always be the one when manifesting a specific goal. If you’re manifesting a job, your first interview or offer might not be what you want and it is up to you to stay positive and keep going. If you’re manifesting your ideal appearance, maybe it’ll come together one step at a time instead of all at once. If you’re manifesting your soul mate, it might not be the first person you go on a date with (but it also might!).

And as I was reminded, the first opportunity you stumble upon might be a complete opposite of what you want in a work engagement.

Since the field of education in this city is an efficient network and I taught university seminars for students and professors for two years, I was referred to another private school for a similar opportunity. They were looking for someone to give a lecture or a workshop in CV writing and interview skills, and I was given an email address for the person in charge. I wanted to be offered lecture dates with satisfying compensation I am used to receiving so I sent an email detailing my work experience and professional goals.

Twelve hours later, I received a reply. The person in charge of booking the lectures outlined exact demands my work experience was perfect for. We both agreed that the needs of this school were exactly what I offered but their email was concluded with the following lines.

“I must tell you though that our school does not offer compensation for these lectures. 🙂 ”

Yes. They put a smiley face at the end of that sentence.

“So, what do you think? Kind regards!”

I was baffled.

A private school in which students pay tuition on a regular basis wanted to hire a lecturer willing to work for free. What did I think? In the following email, this individual proved to be made aware of the unappealing terms but at the same time, those terms were not up to them.

After a few seconds of laughter, I realized I wasn’t even all that surprised. Local organizations offering fair compensation and looking for exceptional candidates are well aware of ones like this damaging the reputation of everyone in the field. One of the people that referred me to this position was borderline outraged, having been unaware of these terms.

I declined the offer with the following statement.

“Thank you for your email but given the terms, I will have to pass on this opportunity.”

Not to mention that the word “opportunity” evoked sarcasm in my mind.

Unless it’s valuable volunteer work, a private university that values their collaborative force so little is of no interest to me. To be fair, they didn’t reach out to me – I reached out to them after being referred to them. I thought they might be my next collaboration opportunity, a desire not specific to a country, city or school, but maybe this means I should get more specific in my goal and I will reach it faster.

Looking at it from the point of view of both the Law of Attraction and peculiar business practices, I find it very interesting that a private university whose staff routinely complains about a lack of quality in the skills of their student body isn’t willing to invest in someone who would improve those skills. And what are those students paying tuition for, if they are not getting the skills they need by the very admission of their own university?

I wanted to point some of these things out because quality of education and fair compensation are highly important topics in today’s world, as they have been at any point in history. But in the spirit of why we’re here on this blog, we could argue their Law of Attraction skills or we could argue mine. They give nothing and then complain about having developed nothing in their students. I will keep going and soon receive everything I asked for, just like I always do.

You get what you give – LoA tells us that every day. Last university I worked with in this city gave me one of the most valuable experiences of my life and having had such experiences, I wasn’t going to let this one take advantage of me. Unless you value yourself, how can others see your worth? What you accept for yourself sends others a message of the kind of treatment you deserve.

I am having new ideas on collaboration manifestations as we speak.