THE Universal Business Truth You Must Know

Designers aren’t lofty

I love my dad.  He was a single father for much of my life and I’ve always adored him.  He’s an incredible artist with a variety of skills mastered.  I remember as a child watching him paint every night.  I didn’t understand his art until adulthood, but I admired it nonetheless.  For much of my life, he was a graphic designer working on marketing campaigns you’ve all seen before and years ago, he began work as a designer for a national sign firm and has since become the senior director of design.  So, let’s just modestly say he has an eye for design.  Better than I ever will.

Most people assume that artistic designers are lofty, dreamy people not oriented with savvy business skills, and those people would be wrong.  My father told me a universal business truth that I want to share with you.  It has stuck with me since I was 13 (and he’ll be shocked to read that I remember it)- on a triangle, only two sides are available to lean on in business.  You can turn it any which way and one point is always in the air, left out- you can’t have it.  Then he illustrated it (in a much sexier way than I’ve mustered up):

What the concept means to real estate

Although he probably learned this in college from some top economist (and my dad’s one of the smartest people alive, I even got in a fist fight in 3rd grade over my dad being smarter than everyone else’s), I still attribute this concept to him.  So, in all transactions I know that no matter how badly you or a client wants all three, a triangle only allows two, so remember:

• You can have a quality product quickly, but you’ll sacrifice cost.
• You can have an inexpensive product quickly, but you’ll sacrifice quality.
• You can have a quality product inexpensively, but you’ll sacrifice time.

So, if you want my quality services rendered quickly, it’s going to cost you.  If you want my quality services inexpensively, it will be in my time frame, not yours.  If you just want a quick, inexpensive product, it won’t be as high quality as it would if you’d given me more time (or… you knew it- money).

So, thanks dad for being my inspiration for teaching us the universal business truth that transcends all businesses!

Originally published on my personal blog on December 11, 2007. Please don’t read the comments where my dad talks about a fetus tail.

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Keywords: Business, Marketing

Topics: Marketing