TOOL · PRICE IT · CHAPTER 6
What is it costing you?
List three problems you've been ignoring. Next to each one, write what it will cost if it keeps going for a year. Use dollars even when it isn't about money. Then pick one word: fix, or walk.
- 0:00Name it. The problem you've been ignoring, in a few words.
- 0:01Price it. What it costs if it keeps going for one more year.
- 0:02Fix or walk. One word per line. Not later.
YOUR PRICE SLIP · 1 YEAR
Three lines. One honest total.
STUCK? START WITH ONE OF THESE
COUNT BOTH NUMBERS
- The price is what fixing it costs.
- The cost is what it takes from you while you wait: hours, sleep, trust, the deal you didn't chase.
WHAT YOU TYPE STAYS ON THIS DEVICE.
- 1. The statement I stopped opening$4,800■ FIX IT
Price it. Then fix it or walk away. Never carry it.
"LATER" IS THE WORD THAT'S BEEN COSTING YOU.
SHOWS ONLY YOUR TOTAL. YOUR PROBLEMS STAY PRIVATE.
PRICE AND COST AREN'T THE SAME THING
The price is what you pay. The cost is your opportunities.
The four-hundred-dollar repair you keep postponing is priced at four hundred dollars and costing you the car on the day you need it most. The course you didn't take is priced at a weekend and costing you the raise. The hour you won't spend on the hard conversation is priced at an hour and costing you the relationship, slowly, in installments.
When you put a one-year price on each line, count both numbers. Use dollars even when it isn't about money: hours, sleep, trust, the deal you didn't chase.
FIX IT OR WALK AWAY
Staying isn't the third option. Staying is paying.
Once a problem is priced, there are only two honest answers. You pay to fix it, or you walk away from it. Walking away from a priced problem isn't failure, and it isn't running. Running is leaving a problem unpriced. Walking away is leaving it priced: you can say what it cost, what it would have taken to fix, and what you did to cause it.
Write one word next to each line: fix, or walk. Not "later."
Read Rule 6: Price itTHE LEDGER · WEEKLY
Switch one line. Every week.
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