When I was younger and started receiving disposable income (first allowance, and later paychecks from places like my local sub shop), I had a hard time understanding why people were so willing to use their hard-earned cash to pay others to do things for them. I’d rather wash my high school car myself than pay someone $10 to do it for me — after all, that $10 was almost enough to fill up my Camry’s gas tank at the time!
But as time’s gone by, I realize more and more the value of paying someone for good service. As an adult (my wife might disagree) with a mortgage, there simply isn’t enough time for me to do all the things I want to. I’d planned on learning how to replace the old, flimsy windows in my basement with glass block myself, but I’m starting to volunteer my time to a few different local organizations, and I realize that what I once considered my free time was actually idle time. So now “free time” often means giving my time to others - for free, and I’m slowly realizing that time management and hiring people to perform services are intertwined facts of life. Sure, I could spend a day learning how to install glass block windows in my basement. I’d probably save at least half the cost to hire a contractor to install them. But when would I use this knowledge again? Probably not for a long time. And if I did have to install glass block again, it would probably be far enough in the future that I’d have to re-learn how to do it because I’d forgotten. Though spending the day it would take for me to learn would save me money, it would still cost me time to install the windows myself — valuable time that I could be donating to causes I believe in, or time I could be spending with my family and friends.
So, I used to think paying people to do things I could learn how to do was a waste of money. But I’ve realized this simply isn’t the case. We live in an increasingly service-based world, and there’s simply not enough time in life to learn how to everything oneself. If there was enough time to learn how to do everything I want to do, I’d be writing this post by vocally dictating it to my dashboard-mounted, hand-built computer in my solar-powered, hand-built sports car. But that just ain’t gonna happen — at least not until I learn how to clone myself.
I, too, had a Camry in high school. The difference is, I never washed it.
In fact, I’ve always held the same philosophy about car washing and making the bed: It’s just going to get messy again, so why do it?
Does that make me lazy?
No, Mike, it doesn’t make you lazy, it makes you more like your hero, Indiana Jones. Because he probably doesn’t make his bed, either.
Mike, my momma always told me
“Your teeth are just going to get grimy again, so why brush them?”
“Those clothes are just going to get filthy again, so why wash them?”
You see where this is going…