In 1925, Jane Beeson had an excellent piano student. He was so talented, she thought he could become a concert pianist. Instead, Richard Nixon turned his attention to other areas.
A little over forty years later, at his 1969 inaugural, Mrs. Beeson sat in the presidential box with President Nixon during a concert. The pianist Andre Watts was performing. Inspired, Mrs. Beeson leaned over and, with a twinkle in her eye, whispered to the triumphant new president, “Now, Richard. If [you] had practiced on the piano, [you] could have been there instead of up here!”
Obviously, Mrs. Beeson had a wonderful sense of humor. When Richard Nixon was a boy, she thought he had a bright future playing the piano if he stayed with it. Instead, he went in a different direction. That’s what we call a tradeoff. A tradeoff is giving up one thing in return for another.
Reading this story about Richard Nixon, I could not help but think about how life is often a series of tradeoffs.
My daughter is about to have her third child. She and her husband are planning the trip to Nacogdoches, where her OB/GYN is. They live in Tyler, so it’s not a quick drive. When the baby decides it’s go-time, they might be racing the clock.
I know that feeling! When we had our second child, we picked a hospital thirty minutes away, even though there was a closer one. We wanted what we wanted. We made it just in time. Our baby arrived twenty minutes after we walked in the door. That drive was a tradeoff we were willing to make.
My parents moved to a town with no hospital the year I was born. The nearest one was thirty minutes away. (I’m starting to see a family generational trend with THIS tradeoff.) They picked the town over the hospital, and I ended up graduating from high school there. I’m glad they did. That tradeoff paid off.
Recently, I talked to some younger adults about healthcare and all the good things we have today. It is amazing how much quality care is available. Strides are made daily in fighting many diseases, such as cancer. Younger folks wonder how we managed without all the “urgent cares” we see today when I was growing up. That’s a good question. But I can tell you this: healthcare coverage wasn’t expensive when I was growing up. Healthcare wasn’t as widely available; often, the healthcare we know today didn’t exist. Those factors definitely made health insurance less expensive.
While we lacked “urgent cares” and many small towns had no hospitals, we had something you don’t see today. We had the family doctor. He was our “urgent care.”
For us, that family doctor was Dr. Warren Murley. He had a clinic, but if things got urgent, he’d show up at our house. He was basically a traveling ER. Today’s healthcare is a tradeoff compared to back then. Sometimes you get better care, more technology, or more expertise, but you might lose convenience, time, or lower costs. Having urgent care centers is great. So is all the new technology. However, health insurance costs a lot more now than when I was a kid. Urgent care is handy, but having a family doctor was great too.
What are your trade-offs in life?
- A longer drive for a trusted doctor?
- A busier schedule for better opportunities?
- Graduate school for a better future?
- Meeting a project deadline at the expense of excellence?
- Can you enjoy what is good instead of obsessing over what you don’t like?
I once read, “Life is often a series of trade-offs, and wisdom lies in knowing which ones are worth making.” Or, as the priest and scholar Ronald Rolheiser wrote, “Every choice is a renunciation.”
Ask yourself this question about your workplace, “What trade-offs are we currently making in our present strategy, and are they paying off?”
Mark
Dr. Mark Edge
The WorkEdge Company
Telephone: 903-245-7851
Email: workedgetexas@gmail.com
Website: www.workedgetexas.com
Author of Holy Chaos. To purchase the book, click here: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=mark+edge&crid=3B1BM6W3LHOG0&sprefix=%2Caps%2C137&ref=nb_sb_ss_recent_2_0_recent
WorkEdge leverages AI as a resource. While this material was not written or generated by AI, the editing was informed by AI tools.