A Life Lesson in Value
John Ruskin once said: "It's unwise to pay too much but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that is all. When you pay too little you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the job it was bought to do. The common law of business balance precludes paying a little and getting a lot. It can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run. And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better"
My dad showed me this quote many years ago as a good life lesson. This quote can be applied to anything we buy, both personally and professionally. We are often tempted to go with the lowest bidder when considering a product or service for our business. We are also very price conscious when we buy products or services for ourselves.
Professionally I have seen mistakes made when companies go with the lowest bidder, hoping that the company offering the "cheaper" service lives up to their promises. The truth is, when you don't pay enough for that company to make a decent profit, you most likely will not get the product or service you originally expected.
With personal products, for example, we could categorize them into three extremes:
- The reliable and better known brand of a product.
- The "dollar store" cheap kind that tries to emulate the reliable and better known brand of a product.
- The upper echelon of product that caters to the very well off - like this $145,000 stereo (who knew?).
I learned my lesson when I bought a no-name drill and bit set for $39 at Costco. It broke, under pretty light use, about 3 months later. No warranty unfortunately. I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice so I got a DeWalt drill for $129 (a very reliable brand). This has been beaten up and abused for 5 years and still hums along like new. Those in the know tell me it will most likely outlast me. "When you pay too little you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the job it was bought to do". I don't make this mistake anymore - thanks to a good lesson from my Dad and John Ruskin.
There are always a few exceptions of course, a new company offering a leading edge service at a discount to get in the door with consumers or businesses. A new personal product that is better and cheaper than its competition…. but these exceptions are rare.
My favorite part of the quote from John Ruskin may be when he came up with the quote……the late 19 century. His theory still applies 120 years later, and probably always will.
