It's 9AM.
Fast, cheap or good.
When I worked in LA, that was the mantra for producers pitching movies.
You can have it fast and cheap.
You can have it cheap and good.
Or you can have it fast and good.
But not all three.
Because time is money.
I liked reading stories about behind the lens rebels, who cut through the BS and corporate tape to make a movie that got them “a deal.”
Even if I knew most overnight success stories took at least a decade.
Which is why you see so many thirty year old’s playing high school kids in movie and TV.
After LA I got educated on owning and running small businesses.
The school of hard knocks is a good taskmaster.
The number one thing I learned is the IRS likes to get paid.
First.
Lucky, I didn’t learn that the hard way, because once you become your Uncle’s favorite, you tend to stick on his radar.
The second thing I learned is that the fast, cheap, good rule applies to business too.
You get to pick two, but all three is going to cost more.
A lot more.
Sometimes that cost is peace of mind.
My Papaw ran his carpenter business after taking a hammer to the face at the paper mill in his twenties.
He just started telling people he was a carpenter, and it happened, back when there was a lot less red tape and city hall hoopla to navigate.
He did not often work fast, except in roofing.
He could roof a house in one day, which I thought was pretty amazing.
I don’t know if it was cheap, but it was good.
I suspect he charged a fair rate, because my depression era grandparents were solidly in the not rich category.
But he was a fair man who charged an honest wage for an honest days work, and paid his ten year old assistant pretty decent for the time and effort.
$5 bucks and a cold Coke at the end of a hot day.
I probably got the better end of that deal.
We built houses, room additions, sheds, and reroofed.
He taught me how to run a backhoe and a tractor, and could run a straight line ditch for two hundred yards for sewer pipe just by eyeballing it.
I remember the city inspector being impressed enough to tell me about it.
“Your papaw sure knows what he’s doing.”
Good and fast.
I couldn’t say if it was cheap.
But that city inspector told him about another job that led to more work that lasted through the end of the year.
Papaw taught me that there was always a factor that often goes unmentioned.
And that factor has a lot to do with how much sweat equity one puts into an effort.
Luck.
He meant hard work creates luck, and not the hard work people associate with manual labor.
Just showing up and putting your back into it and letting people see you are willing.
You can be fast or cheap or good and have luck as the chaser.
If you are good, the more luck you have.
If you are fast, the more luck you create.
If you are fast and good and lucky, maybe you don’t have to be as cheap.
Which is maybe what Papaw was trying to teach after all.
What Are You Reading This Weekend?
I added these two to my to be tried pile: (both free today)
Welcome to Halcyon: A Paranormal Comedy Adventure
Found Objects: A Paranormal Witch Urban Fantasy
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