Jam tomorrow, or Jam today?

“I’m sure I’ll take you with pleasure!” the Queen said. “Two pence a week, and jam every other day.”
Alice couldn’t help laughing, as she said, “I don’t want you to hire ME – and I don’t care for jam.”
“It’s very good jam,” said the Queen.
“Well, I don’t want any TO-DAY, at any rate.”
“You couldn’t have it if you DID want it,” the Queen said. “The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday – but never jam to-day.”
“It MUST come sometimes to ‘jam to-day’,” Alice objected.
“No, it can’t,” said the Queen. “It’s jam every OTHER day: to-day isn’t any OTHER day, you know.”
“I don’t understand you,” said Alice. “It’s dreadfully confusing!”
Source:Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, 1871

I had an interesting call from an ex colleague asking me to help them out and do some work for them.

The work sounded interesting with limited potential for long term ongoing work. Then at the end of the conversation I asked – “OK, great. I know things are tough – what is your budget?”

“£0” came back the reply, “But if we pull this off, I am sure there will be a lot of really valuable work down the road”

Really??? Who was she trying to kid?

Once a person has something for free, or £10 or whatever, that is the benchmark price. its hard to change that (in their mindset) significantly over time.

Plus I need food on the table today, not tomorrow.

Knowing Where to Tap

Ever heard the story of the giant ship engine that failed? The ship’s owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine. Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a youngster. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.

Two of the ship’s owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed! A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars.

“What?!” the owners exclaimed. “He hardly did anything!”

So they wrote the old man a note saying, “Please send us an itemized bill.”

The man sent a bill that read:

Tapping with a hammer ……………………. $ 2.00
Knowing where to tap ………………………. $ 9,998.00

Effort or work is important, but knowing where to make an effort in your life makes all the difference.Source: http://community.businessballs.com/blogs/problem-solving-experience-works/

We need to respect that it is often the knowledge we need to pay for, not the work effort.
Sure there may be a “mates rate”, or a discount, or a payment plan. But if we do not respect the value of the knowledge of the individual, are we truly respecting the individual?

Every business has costs, and part of that cost is aquiring the knowledge.
Developing a website in wordpress for example can be done for almost nothing, but, the design, flow, seo and many other factors are based on experience, knowledge. Knowledge that is valuable.

For we either “copy” (buy) from others – or we learn by trial and error (takes a long time – do you have the time?

There is a saying in the world of construction
– No boots or hard hat – no work

there is a similar line in the world of professional services:

– No budget – no work

or maybe… “The cost of the hammer I will waver – but you need a budget for the experience”

Mike Morrison
RapidBI.com
+44 0208 2300980
RapidBI Blog

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