I was visiting my friend Mitch the other day, he is one of the owners of Vision Tech Computers here in Fort Wayne, and we had a little chat. Mitch told me that sometimes his clients (sometimes friends and relatives) called him even after 11 p.m. M. To ask you about a computer challenge and that you now have to turn off the phone after 11pm. M. Most days. Unfortunately, you don’t get paid for the advice you provide.

My grandfather, a successful entrepreneur, used to say, “People who regularly give or receive advice without being compensated are dumb.”

I think he was not against helping people or sharing information when necessary, because his entire life he was involved in charity work almost every day. I think he was talking about “I’d like to choose your brain for free” people and people who don’t value other people’s time because their own time isn’t worth that much.

Not only Mitch, but even I, fall into this trap because most of us like the effect we feel when helping someone or sharing something we just discovered, especially in technology. In other cases, we just don’t like to say “NO” to someone we know well.

What we don’t realize is billable time lost not serving paying customers or the advice we give is not valued in addition to all the compliments received. One thing I also notice is that in most cases people who would get free business advice do nothing with it because they know “what they paid” for it.

The conclusion is that “what is not measured is not treasured.”

InfoGuru2K6 © 2006