Why Re-Invent the Wheel?

This is a guest post/rant from one of our readers and good friends Chris Guthrie. He’s asked that he be able to post this one time. It’s more of a self frustration rant but like him, I think it would be helpful to you guys.

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Seriously… Why re-invent the wheel when you can just roll it on down the hill? While beginning my investment career I have been kicked in the butt by my own desire to re-think a piece of solid advice that had been given to me by other seasoned investors on multiple occasions. It has happened more than once, but I’ll fill you in on my latest mistake.

I tend to think of myself as a techie and as a pretty good judge of website character. I had been sent an affiliate link to purchase some of the $100 marketing cards from our good buddy Nick Johnson. Nick had stated that the company he uses is highly reputable and would get me my cards sooner, rather than later. But big-headed me, I went to google and searched for other companies that do the same thing. I found a company that claimed they had the highest quality dollar marketing card in the business and they were $70 cheaper for the quantity I wanted to order. I thought to myself, “WOW!!! I can get better quality cards for a cheaper price???” So late that night I placed my order for my marketing cards from this so-called “better” company.

Fast forward 1 week. I get no acknowledgement of my order, no proofs of my design, and the company isn’t replying to my emails or calls. At this point I almost thought I had been taken by a scam. After waiting a few more days, and even considering cancelling the order through my credit card company, I finally get a response from the company. They gave me some sob story as to why my order hadn’t been processed, and that if I kindly re-submit my design request, they would process my request in the order it had been received… “Are you kidding me???”

Add another bone-head mistake the pile. I decided to give the company a second chance to make things right. Without going into graphic detail, after an argument with the owner and delayed shipping due the recent Southern California storms, I finally get my cards little more than 3 weeks after I placed my initial order.

That was just one of the many mistakes I have made since I began my career. They were made as a result not following explicit advice provided to me by experienced individuals. You can also mix in that some of these mistakes were simultaneously influenced by slim-wallet-syndrome (AKA me being a tight-wad), which in each case has cost me more money in the long run either due to down time or having to completely start over from scratch.

Tagged as: marketing