"Price is what you pay. Value is what you get."
∼ Warren Buffett ∼
Motivation Monday - Richard's Insight
There is always a price to pay! Whether we act or don't act, whether we purchase something or don't purchase something...no matter what, there will be a 'price' to pay of some description.
I was reminded of this concept this morning when responding to a forum poster about the concern she had for a friend who was paying for some training. The concern was well placed and genuine. However, from the friend's point of view, they had decided to pay the price through some formal property training. They had a couple of choices actually:
- Do nothing and accept the price of doing nothing too!
- Do it herself and accept the price of her mistakes or lower experience in the end result.
- Do get some external advice and support and pay the price for the training concerned.
You will probably naturally fall into one of these camps...the procrastinator or overwhelmed non-starter, the 'I don't believe in paying for my education' types or the 'I want to accelerate my learning and acquire knowledge fast from people who have the battle-scars to help me' types. I was very much in the second category and it cost me around £1.8m in lost property by delaying my own property journey for the 4 years that I sat there! That was the price that I paid...or the value that I could have received had I bitten the bullet and paid to accelerate my learning sooner.
That's where the second part of Warren Buffett's quote really appeals to me...value. Imagine, if I had spent say £5k to accelerate my learning by two years and received almost £1m in value as a result (half of the lost property value from my 4 year delay). Would this have been a good price-value trade-off to make? Now, I think yes...back then I was too smart for my own good and thought I could teach myself all that I needed to know! As I say, that clever decision cost me £1.8m...
This piece today relates to training and personal development, although we could apply it across many things. For example, cleaning the house...pay someone £10 an hour or do it myself at an effective cost or around £125 an hour in my time equivalent...or the loss of quality time with my wife as an example of a 'priceless' estimate of value!
So, the conclusion today is this...work out the price for sure...but always, always work out the value and then you have that price-value equation in your mind. Then, accept that you will pay the price in one way or another. Whether it be the consequences of doing nothing, the delayed time and know-how by your own trial and error or the cost of paying someone to either teach you or do it for you instead.
As I get longer in the tooth, I have learnt that quite often, the last category pays the best dividends, or generates the most value in my life at least.
Focus on value more than price and it will change the way you think, act and behave from the average results majority to the above average results minority of highly successful people...who often think in non-mainstream ways!
#MotivationMonday