Hello everyone:

You wouldn’t put money in a bag that wasn’t sewn up correctly. If it had big, gaping holes, your cash would fall right out, right? If you wouldn’t do that with your finances, why would you put your college education in the same pickle? You know, you work hard but not very hard and get the assignments done but not very well.

Why would you waste your time doing things halfway? I had a student recently who had the gift of being mediocre, at best. His bag was so full of holes that he had difficulty keeping his mundane writing assignments turned in on time. He juggled numerous tasks but did none of them well enough to rate anything higher than a C. Apparently, he was fine with being average. When the end of the term came, he was very, very close to the next grade, but hadn’t done quite enough to warrant my curving his grade. So I didn’t.

On a completely unrelated topic, I recently visited some open houses when visiting in Florida this past month. I went into a newly-constructed house and was amazed at the poor quality finishes they used on an otherwise nice-looking house. The builder had the opportunity to build the retirement home of a lifetime for someone but he had made the decisions to use Formica instead of granite, linoleum instead of hard wood, and Bath Fitter tubs instead of tile.  With those cuts in mind, I wondered how the home itself was constructed. Did he do everything on the cheap? I’m willing to bet that he did. His bag was full of holes and those holes showed.

I went to another open house, where I viewed a one million dollar home. Sadly, that bag was full of holes, as well. The owners had made some very unwise design decisions, resulting in a conglomeration of rooms that were oddly shaped and painted in strange colors (who does BRIGHT, neon orange in a home they want a million dollars for? This owner, apparently!).

Do you have a bag of holes for your cash or do you do each job to the best of your ability? This is really your call, you know.

Best,

Dr. Sheri