Perceptions of Value
In the small pedestrian precinct that houses our herbal training school there are five hairdressers, if I were to count the total number in our town it would take me more time than I care to spend. Both men and women need hairdressers, both to keep tidy and professional, and on occasion, to make a statement.
I use a hairdresser. My needs are simple; cut straight across my fringe then cut a straight 2” off the bottom, I believe it is referred to as a ‘blunt cut’. If I let my hair grow out it gets straggly, and I appreciate the confidence a good trim gives me.
When I was younger and my hair much longer, I would toss the whole lot over my left shoulder and hack some off, then toss over my right shoulder and repeat. You can imagine what the end result looked like.
So I say again, hairdressers provide a necessary service and I don’t begrudge them the nearly £50 I have to pay to look respectable – even though they don’t reduce the price when I bring in my own shampoo.
However.
I charge £10 for a week’s worth of herbal tincture and some people think that is too much.
If you wonder why a hairdresser’s costs are high you will be told that they have to rent and insure their premises, buy in stock, pay wages, and have had professional training.
Not like me?
I also have to rent and insure my premises, as well as pay fees for membership of a professional body, I have to buy in stock, pay myself a wage and have had years of professional training. I am continually paying for more training, even now, in different areas so I can serve my patients better.
The nub of the problem is that the cost of the medicine is on top of the fee patients have to pay me as a consultation fee. While I do keep this as low as possible, it does reflect the years and years I have spent studying and taking exams.
I remember a story of a mechanic and a hammer, retold here.
‘A giant ship’s engine failed. The ship’s owners tried one engineer after another but none of them could figure out how to fix the broken engine.
Then they brought in a man who had been fixing ships since he was young. He carried a large bag of tools with him and when he arrived immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.
Two of the ship’s owners were there watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away and the engine was fixed!!!
A week later, the owners received an invoice from the old man for $10,000.
What?! the owners exclaimed. “He hardly did anything..!!!”.
So they wrote to the man; “Please send us an itemised invoice.”
The man sent an invoice that read:
Tapping with a hammer………………….. $2.00
Knowing where to tap…………………….. $9,998.00
Effort is important but experience and knowing where to direct that effort makes all the difference.’
If anybody has learnt ‘where to tap’ so effectively after many years, we should not just pay for the hammer tap
