Saving a Buck

We live in a world that is so focused on “saving a buck” that we are willing to waste precious time in the process. A perfect example of this, one that I guarantee everyone will be able to relate to, is filling your car with gas. As a country, we spend more time searching for a gas station that is offering a 5 cent discount then we focus on spending time developing ourselves. During a seminar where I spoke, I asked a gentleman sitting in the crowd, “How long are you willing to drive in order to find the “cheapest” gas?” His response was alarming, but probably consistent with the mainstream thought process because he said about ten minutes (five minutes each way). Realize that the difference between a gas station that is pumping gas for $3.00 per gallon and a gas station that is offering gas at $2.95 a gallon is about 80 cents for a 16 gallon tank. This means that ten minutes of your time is worth 80 cents, and if we were to compound this number in order to see your personal hourly wage, the amount would be an astonishing $4.80, substantially beneath minimum wage.

Now many of you might be thinking to yourselves that you would never even consider spending ten minutes of your time searching for gas, but this was simply an example, and I guarantee if you took the time to completely analyze your day, there are a few hours where you are paying yourself only $4.80. This might consist of the time that you spend in a supermarket trying to use every single coupon, or maybe the time that you spend arguing with your cell phone provider because of an unknown charge on your bill, or maybe this could consist of going to a grand opening of a store that is completely inconvenient to your geographic location, simply to get 10% off.

I do not necessarily think that we make these poor decisions because we are “cheap,” but I firmly believe that the underlying dilemma many people face is putting a value on their time, or in other words, their self worth. Let’s pretend I told you that I was going to pay for you to go to Fiji for one week and provide you with a $10,000 American Express Gift Card that would expire at the end of the week. I guarantee that 100% of you, myself included, would make sure there was absolutely no money left on the card at the end of the trip and you would have done everything your heart desired. Now, let’s relate this concept to time because in life we only have a finite number of seconds to live, and when it’s over, it’s over. We cannot preserve the seconds that we did not live to our fullest extent, and my belief is that far too many of us do not take advantage of life and what living is all about. We avoid risk in order to stay within our comfort zone; we fear change because we must face the unknown; and we would rather play it safe then jeopardize our current state. Well, let’s assume that you have one life to live, similarly to how you had one week to spend all of the money on the American Express Gift card. Would you live your life the same way that you would spend your money and hold nothing back? Why do we put a greater value on money then time because money will come and go in our lives, but time is something that is lost forever? Only you can answer these questions, but I encourage you to answer them honestly because the clearer you become with why you do, what you do, the closer you will get to establish your BRANDENTITY.

So, the next time you begin going on an adventure for the “cheapest” gas station, I encourage you to question yourself about the value you place on your time, and if 5 cents per gallon does not seem to compare with the price you associate with time that will be lost forever, then stop the search, just fill up the tank, and begin to realize that your time is far more valuable than “saving a buck!”

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Acknowledgements for the Picture from Flickr