Apr 16 2008
If it’s broken, do you fix it? Or hire someone?
Author: P. Mullaly
Sometimes being too smart is dumb. It’s certainly true for me. I learn best by just diving in and making a bit of a mess of things which usually ends up with my wasting a lot of time. I finally realized it is often a lot smarter to just read the directions, or better yet, if I am truly out of my element, hire someone who knows what they are doing.
Last summer my clothes dryer stopped spinning. The belt around the inner tumbler had gone “kaput!” and it was up to me to fix it. In typical fashion, I refused to consult the manual and just ripped off the front of the dryer, fudging around, trying to find the broken part. “This has got to be simple. It’s probably a broken belt. Couple of minutes, a run to the hardware store for parts, and this dryer will be good as new.”
Four hours later, with parts all over the cellar floor, grease and grime under my fingernails, and three different and useless replacement parts later, I finally called the repair man. Within 10 minutes he had the back of the dryer off, the belt replaced and all the chaos I had caused, under control.
It cost me $100. But well worth it. I had spent four of my billable hours trying to repair something I had no business repairing. Not a smart idea. If I had just admitted the dryer was beyond my expertise, I would have been making a lot more money than $100 and the dryer would have been fixed correctly.
Sometimes trying to be smart is dumb.
