Know Your Worth in the Digital Age: Why Context Is Currency
Professor Ojo Emmanuel Ademola
The same bottle of water can be ordinary in a supermarket, premium at an airport, and almost luxurious on a plane, not because the water has changed but because its context has. Value in the digital economy operates in a similar manner, shaped by positioning, scarcity, trust, convenience, and the narrative surrounding an offering. In a world that has industrialised comparison, where your work is measured against global talent and your reputation can shift in moments, knowing your worth becomes a strategic discipline rather than a motivational slogan. Worth is not arrogance but clarity: the ability to define what you bring, why it matters, and where it belongs. Those who lack this clarity allow others to set their terms, while those who understand their worth negotiate from principle rather than panic.
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The economics of context
Why does water cost more in certain places? Because the surrounding system alters the equation. At the airport, the traveller is constrained: time is tight and convenience becomes valuable. On the plane, scarcity intensifies; your choices are fewer, and logistics are factored into the pricing. In each environment, the customer pays not only for water but for access and assurance.
In the digital age, context works similarly. The same skill can be undervalued in one organisation and highly prized in another. The same message can be ignored on one platform and amplified on another. The same leader can be dismissed as “too intense” in a complacent culture and celebrated as “visionary” in a crisis. If you have ever felt invisible, it may not be because you are incapable; it may be because you are poorly positioned.
This is not an invitation to chase vanity metrics. It is an invitation to understand the marketplace of attention. Digital environments are designed, algorithmically mediated theatres where certain behaviours are rewarded. When you step into them without strategy, you become a commodity—priced by default.
Your digital identity is a negotiation
In previous generations, identity was largely local. Today, it is searchable. Your digital footprint—what you post, what others post about you, what you endorse, and what you ignore—forms a narrative people believe before they meet you. That narrative can either increase your value or discount it.
Many talented people are undervalued online because they treat visibility as an afterthought. They build competence but neglect communication. Yet competence that cannot be discovered is often treated as if it does not exist. The aim is not noise; the aim is strategic clarity. Articulate your expertise, publish your thinking, and demonstrate outcomes. If you do not document your work, someone with less substance but greater signal will occupy the space you left empty.
This is where the water-bottle metaphor becomes personal. Your “store” context is the environment in which people treat you as interchangeable—one professional among many. Your “airport” context is where your strengths are recognised and your reliability matters. Your “plane” context is where your contribution is essential—where your absence creates risk, delay, or loss.
Your responsibility is to migrate your work from the store to the plane. Not by manipulation, but by alignment.
Scarcity, trust, relevance
Three forces reliably increase value in any economy: scarcity, trust, and relevance. Scarcity is not simply a matter of being rare but of being distinct, and it grows when you develop a capability that is both difficult and genuinely useful, whether through technical mastery, strategic leadership, or the ability to turn complexity into clear decisions, making you far less replaceable. Trust remains one of the most undervalued assets of the digital age, for while people may admire skill, they are willing to pay for confidence, and such confidence is earned through consistency, integrity, and reliability, especially when circumstances are demanding. Relevance emerges when competence is applied to real problems, so rather than listing skills, you demonstrate value by solving issues and linking your expertise to tangible outcomes such as reduced risk, improved service, stronger governance, safer systems, or better learning. When scarcity, trust, and relevance converge, your value increases naturally, and recognition follows without the need for pleading or persuasion, because the market begins to seek you out.
The danger of discounting yourself
Self-discounting has many forms: underpricing because you fear rejection; staying where you are diminished because you fear transition; accepting roles without authority because you fear confrontation. In each case, the cost is not only financial; it is psychological. You begin to internalise the price others assign to you.
Loyalty is noble, but it must not become bondage. If a system consistently reduces you, ask the hard question: is this the right environment for my assignment? It is possible to be called, gifted, and diligent—and still be misplaced.
The digital age magnifies the danger because it offers endless substitutes. Employers can outsource. Audiences can scroll away. Organisations can automate. Therefore, you must build a value proposition that resists replacement.
How to move from ‘store’ to ‘plane’
A clear sense of value begins with an honest audit of your strengths, the outcomes you deliver, and the specific problems you are able to solve. It also requires choosing your context with intention, recognising that the right environment is one that understands and respects your contribution rather than one that merely offers a place to work. Your credibility grows when you build a portfolio of evidence, allowing case studies, testimonials, publications, and presentations to speak on your behalf. Controlling your narrative is equally important, which means keeping your professional profiles current, sharing thoughtful insights, and engaging in communities where your expertise is genuinely recognised, because quietness that erases your impact is not humility. Maintaining high standards protects your value, so it is necessary to decline opportunities that do not align with your purpose or that offer only vague promises of exposure. Finally, staying relevant demands continuous learning, but the goal is applied competence rather than the mere accumulation of certificates.
Worth and wisdom
To know your worth is to know your assignment. It is to recognise that your life is not a random collection of tasks; it is a purposeful contribution. People flourish when they stop begging for a seat at tables that were never built for their calling, and instead build or find the right table.
In my experience, the strongest confidence is quiet and anchored. It does not need to belittle others to stand tall. It is content to be tested, because it has done the work. In faith terms, stewardship matters: you cannot faithfully steward what you continually treat as cheap—your time, your gift, your credibility, your calling.
There is also a moral dimension. When you undervalue yourself, you train others to undervalue labour, excellence, and integrity. When you price your work properly, you honour the time and discipline that produced it. In a world addicted to cheapness, insisting on quality is leadership.
The bottle of water teaches us that the same substance can be treated as ordinary or exceptional. Do not confuse familiarity with insignificance. You may be common to the people who see you daily and exceptional to the people who truly need what you carry.
So, know your worth in the digital age. Refuse to be reduced to a commodity. Define your value, choose your context, build trust, and remain relevant. When you do, you will not merely attract a higher price; you will attract the right purpose, the right partners, and the right platform—and your presence will be essential.
Prof. Ojo Emmanuel Ademola, is the First African Professor of Cybersecurity and Information Technology Management, Global Education Advocate, Chartered Manager, UK Digital Journalist, Strategic Advisor & Prophetic Mobiliser for National Transformation, and General Evangelist of CAC Nigeria and Overseas