Don't underestimate your skills - A short Story
Have you ever tried to define how much you are worth? Most people underestimate their skills and undercharge for their work and services.
As many of the people that follow my blog know, I tend to enjoy the art of storytelling. It always seems to convey the message in a more powerful way. So today won't be that different.
There was once a wealthy man who had purchased a printing press from a foreign company, he has always wanted to start this business and he had finally reached a point on his life where he could afford such a business venture.
The purchase was not small, as some of you might know printing presses come in all sizes for different levels of production and he was not about to start off small. Since the wealthy man had spent so much on his high end printing press he thought to himself it would be wise to save some money on other areas of the business.
It took about two weeks for the technicians he hired to put everything together, but for some reason the machine was not working right. Some pages presented offset letters, the colors were a bit off as well and there was a horrible noise coming from one of the moving levers that sounded pretty intimidating.
The wealthy man was not about to give up, so he demanded his young and resourceful technicians to figure the problem out, after all he was paying them a good salary to provide maintenance and care for this machine. It would be another week before the business owner was ready to ask for help outside of his young but knowledge hungry technicians and he decided to call the authority on these machines.
As you can probably guess, in this story there was an Engineer who had been working with these machines for decades and he knew all the ins and outs, he had probably worked on more machines than anyone could even imagine. The problem was, at least in the eyes of the wealthy man that this Engineer's services were not cheap.
The Engineering showed up of course, walk around the machine, moved a couple of levers as if he was testing the quality of but not really adjusting anything yet. He finally found what he was looking for, took out a small screwdriver and adjusted one small screw.
As if it was an act of magic, the machine worked to perfection and five books had been printed before he was done telling the wealthy man what his service call would cost.
The Wealthy man's face turned red, he felt this Engineer was being abusive, he felt he was being dupped, after all he had adjusted one screw.... He quickly replied "I should report you for abuse.... unless you can provide me with a breakdown of how you came up with that number I won't pay you a dime".
The Engineering looked around, took out his small invoice pad and wrote it up.
Service Call #872
- Screw Adjustment $0.99
- Knowing what screw needed to be adjusted $999.01
The wealthy man read the invoice and his angry face turned into a smile, he knew he was in the wrong. "I'm so sorry Sir, I will have the check made out to you in just a few minutes"
Before signing off, and before I forget... Happy St Patrick's day to you all, the tribe of good intent!!!
Much success
Another great story from you! Thanks for the share. :)
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If your're using 80/20 Pareto principle it could make life easier, but the hard part it takes time and dedication to find your passion. So don't give up finding you love doing. :)
Yes, it does takes time. And finding it is the key to every other thing. This is where many give up. I almost gave up myself but it takes a lot of determination to persist.
the know- how is the cost of the service ! One can pay few thousand dollar to buy an engine ( the real cost of the metal forming the engine could be few dollars) but one pays thaousands only because of the Know-how that assembled these cheap prices together to form that wonderful machine !
Btw.. I used this very example with my clients in my business :) and I got them convinced to pay the high fees
i almost did the same too man
Mirror .. But Who understanding .. Only few i think !
we learn everyday....ur post is a very good example of an eye openner...kudos man
Great lesson!
The engineer paid (in $) his knowledge (long ago) and took the time to check it in practice.
Young masters have spent time and money, but they have not solved the problem.
I bet a lot more than $ 1000!
Interesting and instructive.
The thing is even with languages.
People see the result but not the effort and struggle you take into your learning...
Thank you for the story c:
I absolutely agree with you. In general, people see the results and not the behind the scenes nitty gritty work. Also, some of the things that "look easy" actually takes a lot of time and hard work in order to get to that level.
'Service Call #897'
That's such a long walk to have gained such experience. The wealthy man has not just paid for the immediate service but for a build up of experience over the years. Great Story....... Awesome lessons
Practice = Experience/Knowledge = Greater Bargaining Power.
You always share the good content.Loving every bit of this.It’s been only achieved by total dedication , keep sharing such good stuff.
It’s no price you can pay, to trade time for money
words..smart
Really dig this!
As long as you can explain your answer, you'll be able to negotiate anything.
At first I thought it would be like every other story but to be honest its quite a excellent work.Guess i must blame your writing for that😊
Steem on my friend. You are exceptional.