Have you ever had your car’s “check engine” light suddenly come on for no apparent reason?  And you take it to the shop, only to have them turn a couple screws and charge you $300.  Preposterous!

About 6 years ago the same thing happened to me with a washing machine repairman.  He walked into our house, moseyed over to the washer and simply turned the water supply handle.  He didn’t bat an eye at the $175 bill he handed me for 10 seconds of work.  Highway robbery at its finest.

I like working hard and being rewarded fairly, so I’m super sensitive when there’s a gap between perceived effort and cost.  Great restaurant service, for example, deserves a great tip.  And the same rule applies when service is poor.

The day I challenged my mechanic, however, was the day I learned the value of experience over time.

I asked him how he responded to customers like me, who complained when a simple fix cost them a pretty penny.

“Carlo, do you realize how many different cars I’ve worked on in my life?  How many diagrams and parts I’ve had to memorize?  How many thousands of nights I’ve gone home to scrub the caked-up grease off my arms?”

 “I’ve spent decades learning all these things so I can fix cars quickly for my customers.  This is my livelihood – I’ve earned those 10-minute fixes.  Would you feel better I kept your car all week?”

He’s right.  There’s no telling the amount of tuition he’s paid, from working through sweltering Texas summers to the daily grind over deafening power tools, to become a master.

The general rule is that it takes about 10,000 hours (6-10 years depending on the person) to get great at something.  In essence, you’re not only paying the mechanic for the 10 minutes to diagnose and fix your car.  You’re paying for the years of training it took them to know exactly what to look for.

We do this in other areas of life, too. 

The doctor sees us for 5 minutes and charges us $200.  But we don’t see the extra decade of education and enormous school debt they’ve also incurred. 

The neighborhood restaurant that charges us $10 for a glass of so-so wine.  But we don’t see the giant risk they took to open their business (in a high-failure industry) in the first place. 

Or the waste management company that charges you $300/month for a stupid, dirty dumpster that they always leave in the middle of your parking lot.  OK, that one’s valid.

As consumers, we tend to get caught up in the goal of a“get more, pay less” mentality. This can be dangerous.

So the next time we need to make a simple purchase, consider going out of your way to support a local business. Small businesses are the backbone of the US economy, and big box retailers and companies are slowly snuffing them out.

And the next time we get billed for a quick fix, stop and think about how much time and effort it took for someone to acquire all that experience.