Consider DIY

A typical street in Switzerland in the town of Andermatt. Notice how well everything is maintained. While the government does a lot, so too do the individuals. Keeping the flowers in the flowerboxes fresh takes persistent work.

This is part of my series on how I want us to surpass Switzerland, and one of the ways to improve the quality of your life and the world is by doing things yourself. Many people seem to have a negative view of this, or they see it as simply a cheaper way to do things. However, there are many benefits to doing things yourself that go far beyond saving money. It can increase the quality of your life and the world.

You Are The World To Others

We all want the world to be a better place; however, to other people, we are that world. Therefore, we should want to do our best not only to improve our lives, but also to improve the lives of others.

Do It Yourself

One simple way you can improve the quality of many aspects of your life is by learning to do things for yourself. The benefits go far beyond saving money.

Hire People When Necessary

You can hire people whenever you need them. That's a great idea, but one of the problems with hiring people is how do you know that the person you are hiring is any good? It isn’t easy to hire people unless you understand what you’re doing yourself. How do you know a talented person from an untalented one if you don’t understand what it is that they do?

My Story of a Painter

Years ago, my neighbors and I wanted several buildings that we shared to be painted. However, it wasn't easy to find a painter.

Well, it was easy to find a painter, but it wasn't easy to find a good painter. Having painted a lot myself, I understood painting, and I did not find any that I thought were any good. My neighbors thought that I was being too picky. I was fascinated by how many people thought they were good painters and were confident about it, but in fact weren’t.

A lot more goes into painting, much more than people realize. The actual painting in the end is one of the easiest parts. There is a lot of prep work required to seal cracks, fill holes, sand, and prime before you can actually paint. It’s essential to choose the right paint. And when you paint, it’s important to be clear about even what you’re painting. That seems obvious, but surprisingly it’s not. For example, when painting an exterior, some painters might paint the sides of the trim the same color as the house, because when you spray paint, it’s easy. However, to me, it creates a weird look.

Many people might say, “It’s good enough, it’s just paint.” Before I knew how to paint, I would have said the same. However, now, I realize that painting is more than just a decorative process. Paint protects the wood and building from water. Not done correctly, a poor paint job leaves wood to rot, and that is much more costly in the long run to repair and to property values.

When it comes to hiring people, you have to wonder, if a person is easy to hire, why? Why aren’t they busier? Good people get paid well, are hard to find, and are often booked up months, if not years, in advance.

In our case, we ended up hiring a painter against my judgment, and the work was done poorly. I wanted to be a team player and respect my neighbors’ interests. After a few months, the paint was peeling and our money was out the door.

Six months later, I was at the farm stand across the street. There was a painter there. I could tell by his truck. In an effort to make small talk, I talked to him about painting, and he was surprised at how much I know.

This opened him up to talking more. He then explained many of the problems that were happening in our house. In particular, he said they probably used a regular paint when they should have used a paint stain, because the house was painted with a paint steam. There was also a mismatch in the oil and water paints that were used. All of these things contributed to the peeling of the paint.

He also explained that the color wasn’t matching correctly and that often you have to go to the same place where you got the original paint and even use the same machine that the paint was mixed initially on to get the best match.

Since I had done a lot of painting myself, I understood what he was saying, and I also learned and grew.

He then offered to help, but he explained that he doesn’t usually work with homeowners. He said, “Why? They don’t understand what’s involved. They are often only interested in the lowest price. They have no patience. They don’t appreciate the quality of work. They don’t pay on time. Customers take a lot of work.” He ends up spending more time managing customers than painting. Additionally, all of the variables of different customers make it challenging to retain, train, and generally maintain good employees, as well as manage projects.

Instead, he works with general contractors. They give him big projects. They tell him in advance. He knows the contractors and their desires, styles, and working methods. They know him. He doesn’t have to manage customers. He doesn’t worry about getting paid. He can focus on what he does well, paint. The contractor simply says, “Here’s a job. Can you do it?” It’s easy for him. In addition, because he was talented, the contractors kept him busy.

This is the problem with hiring in general. How do you know who is good and who isn’t if you can’t do it yourself? Additionally, the best talent is often sought after and well-compensated. Furthermore, why would they want to work with you if you don’t appreciate or understand what they do?

DIY Teaches You How to Hire

As someone who has run a business, in the early days, I hired many people, and they didn’t work out. That’s because I didn’t really know how to do the jobs myself, and I didn’t know the difference between those who were good and those who were not. If they took X amount of time to do something, is that fast? Is it slow? Are they doing it properly? I had no idea.

For example, I hired a bookkeeper who didn’t pay my taxes. I didn’t know. I didn’t understand payroll taxes until one day I got a letter from the IRS demanding a very large sum of money. For some reason, she thought I didn’t want to pay them, and not knowing better, I didn’t know that I was or wasn’t. Now, I understand accounting and taxes, and while I may not be an expert, I understand what’s going on and the decisions my accounting team is making.

Faster and Better

I have found that doing it myself does save money, but the bigger result is that I get the job done better and faster. We iron my dress shirts rather than taking them out. It’s actually faster to do it ourselves. Learning about even something as simple as ironing, we realized we could buy an iron press and get the clothes ironed within a couple of minutes. That’s faster than the time to put the shirts in the car, take them somewhere, get out, pay, pick them up, bring them back inside, and take off the wrappers. Plus, many cleaners don’t iron well. Saving money is a bonus.

Our steam press. The picture is from Amazon’s website.

Excuses

Many people make excuses for not doing things themselves, but this is a straightforward way to improve your life. There are so many videos on YouTube for just about anything. Some people say they don’t have the energy, but that’s just a mindset. It’s only a lot of work because you say it is.

Doing things yourself demonstrates to others that you are committed to a better life. And this increases your professional opportunities. Learning improves your professional life as well.

I avoided doing things myself for a long time, or at least I limited myself a lot for many reasons. First, I was told that in a capitalist society, it’s most efficient for the accountant to be the accountant and the painter to be the painter. Each of you will make a higher profit if you do what you’re good at, and each of you will have more results in the end.

While that is a nice theory, I have not found that true in practice. In many cases, I can complete the work more quickly than it takes to hire someone, especially for small to medium projects.

Rich People Do it Too

Warren Buffett, one of the wealthiest people in the world, does his own taxes and many of his own transactions himself. He knows the details. Bill Gates is a programmer. Steve Jobs could design and code. Maybe not as well as the people he hired, but good enough to know the difference. Jeff Bezos fulfilled orders personally when he was starting. Mark Zuckerberg did much of the early coding, and I suspect he still gets his hands in the code a little even now.

Another reason that I used to avoid doing things myself, especially when I rented, was that it was the landlord’s building. If I did any work, then I would be a “chump” because the landlord would get free benefits on their building.

In retrospect, that wasn’t true. It made me a better tenant. I got to live in a better place. The landlord, in some cases, would be able to write off the expenses, saving both of us money.

You Can Wait or Do It Yourself

You can wait for your life to improve, or you can do what you can do now. There really is no downside. How can you improve your life yourself?