Working hard as a business owner gets results. Working hard for someone else may or may not get rewarded. I’ve done both.
The problem, as an employee, is that the employer has an incentive to only pay you what he needs to in order to keep you around. He will only pay you more if he thinks you’re worth it AND HE IS CERTAIN YOU WILL LEAVE if he doesn’t.
That’s the key thing: demonstrating that you can be an asset to him, and that you WILL be an asset to the competition if he doesn’t do right by you.
Well said, 100% spot on.