The two currencies in life
That will get you anything you want
With most things, we have the option to pay for them or do them ourselves. We hear stories about how our grandparents did everything themselves — like building their houses, fixing their cars, etc. Not sure where they learned to do everything, as there were no places like Google or Youtube where they could look for help.
Times have changed. Today, you would need a bunch of different degrees and certifications to even legally be able to build a house by yourself. The culture and view on money&time have also changed. Nowadays, we spend more time working and buying most services (at least in bigger cities, where the culture is slightly different and services are available). We hire cleaners and carpenters, order food, get things delivered to our front door, etc. And why wouldn’t we? If we’re making $60/hour, why wouldn’t we pay $30/hour for someone else to clean your house while we focus on our own work? It makes sense financially. And it’s so easy, you basically just need to click a button on your phone.
There are two areas where I face the work vs. money -questions almost daily:
Business
As a small business owner, I know that this is something we think about all the time. A lot of time vs. money questions. Every day.
When we’re starting a business, we need to decide if we want to take in money to get off the ground or if we put in the time. Do we pay a company to help us (with things like sales, marketing, and accounting) — or do we spend time learning how to do things, and do them ourselves? Do we hire an employee to help us get more work done, or do we just put in more time ourselves? Do we take a loan or hire a company to help us scale faster, or do we scale slowly by ourselves?
Money isn’t always an option, so we have to put in the work.
Training
My view on this topic, when it comes to training, is slightly different. When deciding to do an Ironman, basically without knowing how to swim or bike — it would probably have made sense to hire a coach to help me. Even if I’m greedy, it isn’t about the money. I think there’s some kind of satisfaction in figuring it out by myself.
And by figuring out, I mean reading articles/books and watching videos. I will not learn everything a coach would teach me, and I will not learn as fast — but that’s fine. I don’t do Ironman races to become a world champion, I’m doing it for the experience. It doesn’t really matter if I finish the race in 12 hours or 10 hours.
Doing it myself, and holding myself accountable is also something that fascinates me. So many hire a personal trainer to keep them accountable, but what happens when the personal trainer isn’t there to drag them to the gym and make sure they are doing all the sets/reps?
We have all the information we need at the end of our fingertips, all we need to do is put in the time and do the work.
