October 4, 2022

Success story from reader Noel Rivas Cárdenas

Fellow list member Noel Rivas Cárdenas wrote in to share a pricing win that drove home the insanity of trading time for money (shared with permission):

Jonathan,

I know you know this and that I’m preaching to the choir director and record producer here. I guess this is just an emphatic acknowledgement of your hourly billing is nuts point.

Man, hourly billing really is bonkers. Today I realized that a small fix for an app that I offered at a fixed price could be solved more efficiently than I previously thought. Since I offered at a fixed price, having found a more efficient solution will increase my reward and deliver results to the client faster. In the hourly model, I would have just charged a couple hours and resented my brain for being clever (which actually happened, on the same project, some time ago).

I don’t want to resent my brain for being clever! 😂

Noel Rivas Cárdenas

That’s right folks...

If you’re trading time for money, eventually you’ll start to resent your brain for being clever.

Why would anyone want that?

Yours,

—J