Increase The Quality of Your Life
The Miele Washer we love.
This is part of my series on being Better than Switzerland. A crucial aspect of life is enjoying it. A key difference between the rich and the poor, between the rich countries and the poor countries, is an investment in quality. But what is quality? What does quality mean? Please take a second to answer this question for yourself before you proceed.
Quality Is More than Longevity
I wrote a book on Economics and Happiness, and one of the things that I have observed is that quality is a key factor in the quality of life. However, many people confuse quality with durability. Durability is simply one aspect of quality.
Quality is also about happiness. How much joy does an object provide? How does it make you feel? Quality should include a positive emotional experience. Does the thing create a positive emotional experience? As Marie Kondo says, “Does it spark joy?”
Unless you want to be ruled by money, it’s essential to understand that life is more than dollars and cents. Life is about enjoying yourself.
Quality consists of two things:
Durability - How long will it last?
How does it make you and others feel? What is the motivational experience?
Quality might also be described as how much happiness something provides over its lifetime.
Invest in Quality
As I mentioned before, we want the world to be better. To others, we are the world out there. Making our life better makes their life better. So by investing in quality, you make the world a better place. Here are some reasons why you should invest in quality:
You Create More Quality Jobs
When you vote for quality by buying it, you support people who want to make and maintain quality things. You increase the quality of jobs that are available and that people have by rewarding excellent work.
You Improve Your Own Life
By choosing quality, you improve the quality of your own life. You add some stability and beauty to your own life and that of your family.
Residual Value
Quality things have a residual value. If you buy a couch from some random furniture store, while it may be cheaper up front, it’s probably unlikely that you’ll be able to sell it later. Your money is lost. Plus, it probably lasts a shorter time. If you buy from a brand name like Pottery Barn, you’ll probably be able to sell it for more later. For virtually any quality product, you can always sell it later. Your upfront money is not lost.
Even better, you can buy that Pottery Barn couch used, have confidence in it, and sell it later and get most, if not all, of your money back.
Improve The Environment
Quality also reduces trash. Rather than buy some cheap thing that you’re going to have to throw in the garbage, purchase something that is going to stick around and provide long-term value.
Lower Cost of Ownership
Quality lowers your overall cost of ownership, not just in its lasting longer but in your daily and day-to-day maintenance. Quality things work. They don’t require regular time or money.
Raise Your Own Standards
Quality also increases your standards. This makes it easier for you to provide quality service to others and demonstrate that quality is essential. We want to hire and pay people who provide quality service. Be one of those people.
Once someone asked me, “You are working at a job and they pay you X. Which car should you buy?” I think the thinking about the question is to buy a car that fits within. Your budget. But my answer was, “Which care is going to make you happy, your job easier, and get you a promotion?”
Saving Money Doesn’t Work For Many People
I have met too many people who try to save money and are waiting for a better life, but it never comes. While it is absolutely true that there are people who manage their finances well and do have a great life, those people actually enjoy the process of saving money. To them, it’s like playing a game and seeing how many points they can get. The bigger their bank balance, the happier they are. Saving itself is the pleasure.
Warren Buffere, for example, likes saving and managing money carefully. To him, it’s a game where the money you save and earn is like points. Despite having billions, he doesn’t really spend it at all. I know many people who get a thrill out of saving money, but I find that most people are not like this. Saving money is a chore.
If you are that type of person, great, but I find that for most people, that doesn’t work. It just puts you on he treadmill of life.
Find Stability
It’s exhausting to constantly worry about money and keep having to buy new things when you focus on quality, that is minimized.
Grow More as a Person
To live a quality life and buy quality things, you have to educate yourself. You have to increase your discernment. Buying quality requires learning. How do you know what quality is if you don’t learn about it? You generally have to invest time to learn about quality things, and this, in general, improves you and teaches you about quality. It can inspire. It is educational.
Quality is not simply about positive reviews on Amazon. For example, when people judge vacuums, they often judge them by how much suction they have, ignoring many other qualities. Some quality vacuums are quieter, but they are perceived as poorer quality because they don’t make as much noise and give the impression of being worse. Some vacuums have smaller heads, so even if their suction is good, you have to do more passes over your floor to cover the area. Some vacuums also damage your floors, baseboards, and furniture, and people often do not consider the quality of the end of the vacuum and its impact on their home.
Gain More Trust and Respect
This growth will spill over into other aspects of your life. You will be seen as a quality person. You will be respected more. You will be trusted more.
A key factor in my wife's career success is that she decided to purchase an Acura RDX instead of a Honda, as many of her peers did. It was a wise choice. While it was nicer than other cars, it wasn’t excessive or unreasonable. She probably wouldn’t have gotten the same response if she had bought a Mercedes G-Wagon, for example, and she would have been seen as reckless.
She was perceived as a higher-quality person with higher standards, and people respected me for that. The people who worked for her had more respect. The people who hired her felt better. We want to hire people and have people in our lives who make us look good, and she looked good.
I wore a suit early in my career, and this had a substantial positive impact on my success, when most of the other tech people were wearing casual clothes. It communicated that I had standards, and I believed in myself and trusted in a positive future.
Be The Person You Want To Be In 5 Years
Legendary fashion designer Tom Ford, who brought Gucci back to life, says dress like the person you want to be in five years—the same goes for the items you purchase. Be the person you want to be.
Life is Too Short
Life is too short to buy cheap and low-quality stuff. When will you enjoy it? If you're going to suffer, you might as well have nice things. You don’t have to be foolish. You can be smart.
Make the World a Better Place
When you buy quality, you make the world a better place. We want the world to be better, and to others we are in that world. When we improve our own lives, we also improve the lives of those around us.
Quality Can Be Affordable
Many people say that they can’t afford quality. I would tell you that you can’t afford not to. There are so many ways to get quality things. You can buy them used. For example, one of my first lessons was in my first full-time job. My peers and I all bought our first new cars. I recall purchasing a Nissan Altima. I was surprised because one of my coworkers had an Acura. I was stunned. His car was much nicer than mine. I asked him how he afforded it. He said he bought a pre-owned one. He spent less and got a nicer car.
There is a Facebook marketplace. You can buy brand-name stuff used. And you save money overall. It’s an investment.
Consider doing things yourself whenever possible. Can you sew? Can you learn how to cook or build? Can you be more organized?
As I said before, don’t confuse quality with expensive or durability. They are not the same.
Our Miele Washer and Dryer
We recently bought a Miele washer and dryer. They are more expensive upfront. But here are some of the things we have found.
It has an app that tells us when the laundry is done, so we can wash more loads more quickly rather than constantly checking.
The kids can do their own laundry.
It uses less energy. In fact, the dryer is so efficient that it doesn’t even have a dryer vent.
No dryer vent to clean or cause fires.
It can dry clean clothes, saving on dry cleaning expenses and time. This feature alone pays for the added cost.
It has a special way of washing that lengthens the life of clothes. In general, washing clothes shortens their lifespan. The Miel’s design minimizes that, roughly doubling durability in my experience and reducing my clothing expense.
It has its own built-in soap dispensers that dispense the exact amount of soap needed, and therefore, we spend less on soap.
It makes laundry more exciting for my wife, and she does it more often and is more motivated to stay on top of it.
They are designed to last much longer.
I can wash things that other washers cannot do well, like my sneakers, which saves me a lot of money.
They are quieter and make the house more peaceful.
There is a high resale value on these machines.
How Can You Improve Your Quality?
For the sake of yourself nd the world, how can you improve the quality of your life?
