Ugly children and sacred animals
Ugly children and sacred animals
It seems as though no one wants to hear the truth these days. Maybe it has always been this way. I was given advice from one of my mentors that companies do not inherently want to change, and I have found that people fall into that same pattern. I believe the only way to break the pattern is to learn to listen to the advice of people who know.
I love solving problems. I have always been curious, and at a certain point in my life I embraced that I was probably a “nerd” all along. Nerds were not cool in the 90’s, so I adjusted and became the polar opposite. I rebelled and refused to conform. I surprise myself to this day how I managed to make it thus far. My natural curiosity causes me to focus on the most obscure things; for example, I have 8 different coffee makers in my house, and I roast my own coffee. So you know, coffee is best consumed within 7-12 days of roasting to get all of the benefits of the compounds in coffee. The best tasting coffee in my opinion comes from a french press and takes approximately 14 minutes to brew. Again, I have a tendency to take things too far.
Back to ugly children and sacred animals. I am the person that will tell you the truth, and I am the guy that wields the sword to sacrifice the sacred animal (think Apocalypse Now, the scene towards the end of the movie). In many ways this feature of mine has been a self preservation mechanism that was refined post-MBA after diving head first into decision modeling and statistics. I try to think of all of the things that can go wrong and have contingencies priced into whatever estimate I am giving. In many ways the years I spent in Wellbore Intervention, i.e. “Fishing” taught me about being prepared for anything. The disconnect between big projects and working in someone's home is the ability to write the check.
This past week I have been up to my eyes cleaning up after the tornado that passed through Montgomery County, TX. I have been helping where I can and giving estimates on what it will take to do the work. My spreadsheets allow me to make quick decisions. This said, there are other workers out there throwing out BS estimates. I shudder when a homeowner tells me that they have an estimate that is $4,000 less than mine. I feel sorry for two parties in this situation: the homeowner and the contractor, because someone will end up getting screwed. I know that my prices are not the cheapest, but I know the quality level my crews are capable of delivering. I will not bend, because I would rather you know the price before we get into tearing things apart and you find out you don't have the money. To sum it up, go with the best that you can afford and choose the most thorough description of the project. The more details the contractor is able to articulate in words shows you the thoroughness of his ability to really analyze the situation.
