Cheap.

Even in these times, when we’re all searching for cheap things and we surf the internet looking for the best offers (such as “new, reliable, beautiful car, by a good brand, with good equipment and most importantly, with a discount”) we still don’t find this type of stuff. Nor do we find good programmers, sound designers, or valuable managers with a lot of experience.

Cheap has always been either:

1. A lousy product or service, incomplete or with hidden defects or,

2. Someone on the verge of losing all their money, going bankrupt, or someone who has nothing else to do but sell themselves cheaply because they lack the much-needed experience and skills. But here’s the catch, those who end up on the verge of losing all their money do have a problem somewhere.

And those who think they can delegate a managerial act to an inexperienced (and cheap) person or hire a professional service provider – that does not pay their people honorably (which is reflected in the price) – are complete fools, even in Romania. They live in a world where they think that if they can click on an app and everything happens instantly and (apparently) without a cost, this is also the case with the little men who put their thoughts, experience, and time into a project.

And the discounts don’t even get me started. Discounts are for the “clothes” in shopping malls that no one wants, and the sellers have to put up signs of “up to 90% sales” to get rid of them. “Clothes” that lack quality and must be thrown away after the fifth washing. I, myself, have a few white shirts from a brand (I’m not promoting anything here) that are still holding up perfectly after ten years. But, they indeed cost more than your average shirt. And why on Earth would anyone cut down the price, especially for professional services?! Is the client the mother, father, brother, aunt, or childhood friend of the supplier? But, if you receive a complex project that will run for a more extended period, then, yes, maybe, you can talk about a discount. Simply put, this means that you, as a client, do a favor for the supplier and vice-versa. Otherwise, like in that movie with Tom Cruise: “Show me the money.”

This obsession with cheap things will make a lot of people go broke. The best example here is the people who work for the state, who do all the work at the counters and in the office (I’m not talking here about the big bosses who earn vast amounts of money) who are poorly paid. Can you expect them to perform well? Understandably, they can’t. So I, myself, stopped blaming them. And the market is full of firms that perform well, cheap and fast. Supposedly, at least. But what do those people wear, eat, drink and smoke? Air?