Why pharmacists should avoid cutting their own lawn

How can you bet your chips where they pay you the most?

Easy question: what do you make per hour?

Some bets in life are simple once you wrap your mind around them. For years, my wife and I resisted paying someone to cut our lawn. Despite the insane schedule that comes with being connected to a few pharmacies, triathlon training and everything that two children brought our way, I was fixated on the cost of paying someone. What I did not realize is that that hour could be spent in the pharmacy working or doing something that brought me joy.

Then my father-in-law received a diagnosis that had us caring partially for him and my mother-in-law. The systems we worked so hard to design were newly stressed. The lawn was the low hanging fruit and once I outsourced it, I wondered why I had not done it earlier.

Three principles that I realize more clearly now

First, I did not exactly find life-changing joy in cutting the lawn. It had become a to-do item and a recurrent worry at the back of my mind. My first recommendation would be to ask yourself if you would rather cut the lawn or spend time doing something else, something more meaningful to you.

Second, we work in a profession that allows me to make more money by working more. After the math, I realized an extra shift twice this summer would pay for the summer’s lawn care. Those two shifts would save me from about 40 hours of yard work that involved all the tangential tasks of getting outside, doing the chore itself and maintaining a lawnmower and its gas.

Third, why did I think fixing a lawnmower when it breaks was my specialty anyway? Unless we have a mechanic’s background or a desire to deeply research small engines, maybe pharmacists should stick to being pharmacists and let the lawn experts do the lawn.

Remember the easy question – what do you make per hour?

Another easy question: how many hours would you have to work to buy freedom for something nagging you, that you are not the expert in anyway? By outsourcing, can you create a job for someone else?

If so, it’s time to bet on yourself and outsource. 

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