“I knew it was going to be a hit, and I wanted to see if I doubled my ask,” she said. “And they went right away and said, ‘Sure.’ And I thought, ‘I’m 50, 60—it took me this long to understand that I could do that.’”
“They needed me,” Streep added. “I felt I was ready to retire. But you know, it was a lesson.”
It was indeed. The film went on to gross over $326 million worldwide, earn Streep her 14th Oscar nomination, and cement Miranda Priestly as one of cinema’s most iconic characters. Its much anticipated sequel, The Devil Wears Prada 2, which hit theaters last month, has already more than doubled that, grossing $660 million and counting.
Today, Streep has starred in over 64 films, holds the record for the most Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations of any performer in history, and is widely considered one of the greatest actors in film history.
Finance icon and self-made millionaire Suze Orman had her own version of the same reckoning. When a bidding war for her second book, The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom, hit $800,000 in the late 1990s, Orman told her literary agent to stop it there—even as offers climbed toward a million and a half.
Looking back, the reason was simple: “I didn’t think I was worth it.”
Then again, just months later, she went up against her publisher, Random House, over the title of her third book.
“Break my contract,” she told her manager at the time. “I refuse to write a book for them.” In the end, Riverhead published the book in 1999 under her title of choice, The Courage to be Rich. It went on to become a New York Times bestseller, and Orman appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show 29 times.
“You know your worth when you know your own thoughts,” she said. “When you keep asking everybody, ‘What do you think?’ and you’re constantly looking outside for what other people think or their approval, you do not know your own worth.”
For everyday workers, asking for a raise is a little more complicated than having a Hollywood epiphany and doubling your ask on the spot. But the underlying logic isn’t so different.
Start by looking at job advertisements for similar roles and speaking with recruiters to find out what someone at your level should actually be earning.
Then, start noting down how your work has benefited the growth of your company, from positive client feedback to any sales you’ve generated—that’s your leverage. From there, you can begin quantifying the value you bring to the organization.
Plus, Procter recommends adding $6,000 to $19,000 to that figure—the approximate cost for employers to find your replacement, depending on your level of experience. Suddenly, a pay rise starts to look like the cheaper option.
