In the faraway town called Willowlane, there lived the most skillful mechanic in all the land. He could fix any vehicle, from Ferraris, to Bugattis, to Jeep gladiators, to Jeep wranglers, and even the most complicated Tesla model. Ginger was his name, and he was definitely milking all this fame. He became famous from fixing the King of Willowlane’s Land Rover and ever since then, he’d employed and trained just five additional apprentices. He adamantly didn’t want to employ more for obvious reasons… he wanted to keep his skill set confined to a very small group.
One day, the King’s wife’s Hellcat car broke down on her way to her royal duties. Frustrated as she was, she knew Ginger was there to save the day regardless. So, she called upon him and his apprentices and they were there in the following two minutes. The problem was a bizarre one though. There was a clear sign of overheating…but everything checked out right! The oil was fine, the engine didn’t look overworked, nothing looked amiss, however…the car was on a literal heating tantrum.
Ginger and his apprentices were at their wits’ end with this case. This had never happened before! They always knew what was wrong and didn’t even have to double-think it. By this time, a lot of the townsfolk had gathered to witness the unbelievable scene and even the Queen’s mood had switched from frustration to disbelief that this case was beyond the most skillful mechanic. That was, until an old man from the crowd cried out, “I can fix your car, Your Majesty.” Obviously this was laughable because Ginger and his five apprentices were known to be the only mechanics in all the land. But at this point, there was no feasible solution, so with much reluctancy, Ginger gave way to the man. The old man hobbled up to the engine, took one look at the various machines in the vehicle, and brought out a feather. He closed the hood and put the feather on. All of a sudden, the overheating stopped, everything was back to normal, and the car was running with the newest engine anyone had ever seen.
In utter disbelief, Ginger thanked the man and asked him to detail the cost for magically fixing this car. The old man scribbled something on a piece of paper and handed it over to Ginger. It was a bill of 20,000 Canadian dollars! Outraged, Ginger shouted, “How can you present me with this overpriced bill! Do you know my job better than me? Explain this bill!”
The old man, smiling, said, “Oh I will explain this to you. The feather used in the process of fixing the car cost two dollars. The remaining $19,998 dollars is the cost for me knowing exactly where to place the feather. And yes, in this case, I know your job better than you do because if you had my experience, you would have been able to fix Her Majesty’s car like I did.”
Folks, this is a simple message to indicate: know your worth and the value of your experience in any given field you’re passionate about. Don’t settle for less!
Your experience in something may become the most valuable at a given point in time and you would have to price it accordingly. I hope that as everyone goes out there today we’d all know our worth and value our skills.
