[Reflection] #24: Cheap People Cost Us Dear
While tidying up my glue sticks for a DIY project today, I thought back to a story. During a DIY workshop, there were about a dozen of us, and we were sharing one glue stick among four people. It was a pain because we were constantly using glue for this activity. We spent all our time waiting. I thought we didn’t have enough sticks or brushes… until the last day, when we discovered a cabinet full of supplies. We could have each had our own stick from the start! If we’d saved all that waiting time, I think we could have gained an afternoon to learn other techniques. I told myself: that’s a bad teacher (or someone who doesn’t like teaching). I didn’t give it much thought until the same thing happened recently in another workshop: the instructor only prepared the exact amount of paint needed, and we had to wait a long time between each color. We all needed a tool to keep going, and she gave us ONE for twenty people!
Yet I’ve been to other workshops where we each had all the necessary tools in a small box, one per person. We didn’t have to share anything, and everything went quickly and efficiently.
I wondered if these two instructors, who provided just exactly what was needed, lacked observation skills, but no. Craftspeople are by nature meticulous and observant. And today, tidying up my glues, I had a revelation: they know very well that supplies are missing, but they’re just cheap. Cheap with supplies, cheap with explanations and sharing knowledge. They barely answered students’ questions, as if every word they uttered cost them a gold bar.
Some people cheap have this habit of optimizing everything, often at others’ expense. They don’t respect your time or energy because they don’t think in terms of abundance; they don’t respect their own time or energy either. A friend cheap, for instance, during a trip, might make you walk rather than pay for a bus (that might seem extreme, but it’s a lived experience). In my DIY examples, you can clearly see that this scarcity mentality goes beyond money. For example, having one glue stick per person or prepping enough paint in advance would cost nearly nothing—financially (they can be reused) or in terms of cleanup (students wash brushes and sticks). It just requires accepting having enough in abundance. Yet these people, stuck in their scarcity mindset, aren’t aware of it. For them, you always have to ration, limit, even when it makes no sense. It reveals a lack of generosity and a fear of missing out, whereas abundance doesn’t mean wasting, but rather making life easier.
I’m currently reading “Gone with the Wind,” and in the novel, Scarlett O’Hara, who experienced hunger and nearly lost her farm during the war, was traumatized and developed this scarcity mentality. Even in situations where abundance is easily accessible (she married Rhett, who was a millionaire, and made her farm prosper), she always wants more, afraid of running out, of being hungry again.
In my opinion, you can live in abundance without wasting:
- You should never be cheap without essential needs (food, bedding, shoes, books…). On the other hand, for non-essential needs, you can wait a bit and optimize spending (sales, buying second-hand…).
- Work tools are part of essential needs: for those who work in an office, it could be a powerful computer, an ergonomic chair, a monitor with a better resolution… I also talked about delegating to reduce mental load here
- And I’ve always believed that it was easier to increase your income than to reduce your expenses.
- Having generous friends, that avoids many complications, whether it’s for a trip with friends or just choosing a restaurant.
- Don’t hesitate to share important information that can benefit others. Give as much as possible (charity, time, knowledge, opportunities…).
- For those who have a scarcity mindset without any valid reason, you can work with a hypnotherapist
I truly believe everyone deserves the best in the world because everyone does their best. You can buy less but buy better. But to afford the best in the world, you first need to overcome this scarcity mindset.
