The Costs Of Cobbling Together Your Own Solutions

There's something oddly satisfying when you click that final part into a piece of furniture. You know: the SNAP when it settles into its designated spot.

I get that thrill when I manhandle two or more softwares together so I can accomplish some business objective. It's not quite a snap per se, but usually there is a success message or some green check mark.

I used to live for that green check mark ✔

Now I've realized that it's an expensive check mark 💸

As a business owner, there's excitement when you can introduce a new software or tool that will ostensibly make your life easier, your work more productive, your profits higher than ever, and everything else the sales rep said.

Often you spend the most time rationalizing the price tag, but the invisible cost of time and attention invested in configuring and troubleshooting isn't as visible as that monthly service fee. It's intangible and vague, so you ignore it for the most part, but it's a very real cost.

Then, you have to make it work with all the rest of your existing stuff. Another hidden cost.

But, maybe you're like me and you get excited by the setup and configuration phase.

A learning nerd like me relishes that hidden cost because if I can pay time and attention, I might be rewarded with a feeling of pride.

I'm calling that feeling CobblePride- the pride from cobbling something together on your own.

Mmmm, the SNAP.

The green check mark ✔

Here's the rub: if you as a business owner are content with spending the time and attention for the hopeful payoff of CobblePride, then you do you.

Odds are, though, that you've ignored the cost to obtain that CobblePride. You've ignored the opportunity cost of ALL THE OTHER THINGS you could be doing instead of trying to get the dumb API key working on your new software's unhelpful integration page. You've ignored the feelings of fear and loss of control and uncertainty that may be tied to your insistence on figuring it out on your own.

​I know I've ignored those costs and feelings before and regretted that choice.

What's helped me balance my thirst for CobblePride has been outsourcing and hiring smart people to do things I definitely could do but probably shouldn't do.

• Should I spend time configuring my Facebook ad campaign or should I ask my Marketing Consultant to do it? It'll cost me money to have Clare do it, but it would mean that I could spend my time working on a goal that's equally as important that I'm better at.

• Should I try to figure out how to create a logo using a design software or hire someone on Upwork to create a design? It'll cost me money, but then I'll have someone's technical expertise AND design expertise: outsourcing will get the work done more than twice as fast and twice as good.

My CobblePride is not that important for things like that. I think I'd rather spend money to make more money than to spend time to satisfy my CobblePride.

How does CobblePride influence how you get things done? Let me know what you think!​

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PS. If you read the last TL;DR where we talked about the Value Pyramid, another way of looking at CobblePride is as the value of Self-Actualization in the 3rd tier on the Value Pyramid.