Learn to Be Self-Reliant

How fixing things yourself can save time and money, and give you a sense of pride

A couple of weeks ago, one of our precious irrigation timers stopped working. I thought this would be an easy fix, so I bought a new one to replace it. While installing it, I broke the PVC pipe underground and thus broke the one consistent source of water we had keeping our garden alive.

I thought, OK, no problem, someone can come to fix this and it’ll be a couple of hundred bucks at worst.

Well, I had someone out to take a look the next day, and he said “Sure, this should be a couple of hours job and it’ll be $200”.

I said, “Great, see ya tomorrow at 7 am”!

Only… he never showed up.

I texted him, called him, and left a voicemail. I even followed up via text for the next 2 days like a crazy ex who’s not getting the hint.

Ghosted.

I would go on to get ghosted/no-showed by two other landscaping companies in the subsequent weeks for this same problem.

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Before this, we had three other general lawn maintenance people who eventually all stopped showing up over the last couple of years.

Either people must be so overwhelmed with work that they can’t bother to show up or even call back, or they simply don’t like money.

So, after 3 weeks of watering the garden manually and waiting for a landscaper to come do the work, I got fed up - I decided to do it myself!

After a couple of YouTube videos and a few hours at Home Depot to gather the supplies, I not only fixed the original break but also fixed an issue downstream where we were losing quite a bit of water. And the best part? This was WAY cheaper AND allowed me to learn a handy new skill.

Downfalls of relying on others

Now, while reading the story above, you probably thought of a relatively easy task in your life that someone either:

• No-showed/rescheduled

• Overcharged you

• Didn’t do a good job

• Or all of the above

The worst part is, these things not only cost you money but also your valuable time! I’m fortunate to be able to work from home where I could schedule people and if they no show, yeah it’s annoying, but at least I didn’t take time off.

Most people don’t have that luxury. I can’t imagine how mad I would have been if I had to take the day off and a person who was supposed to take a look at something didn’t show up.

Another downfall of relying on others that’s honestly happened to me more times than I care to admit, is with car maintenance. It’s something I still don’t know anything about, so when I take my truck into the dealership (or stealership lol) for routine maintenance, I have to trust the technicians that the laundry list of things to get fixed on my truck ACTUALLY needs to get fixed.

I usually always do the list cause I want my truck to last a long time, but I always walk away feeling like I got robbed.

If I could rely on myself to at least know what my truck ACTUALLY needed by learning to diagnose the simple things, I’d likely save myself a lot of money.

Broader issues of being dependent on a system

Of course, there is a larger issue at play here at a societal level.

Who/what do you rely on for clean water?

Who/what do you rely on for electricity?

Who/what do you rely on for the food you eat?

Who/what do you rely on for money to pay for the roof over your head?

Who/what do you rely on for protecting you and your family?

I’ll bet most people, unfortunately, have to list either their local/state/federal governments or their employers for all of the above.

I’ll bet most people, particularly those that live in large cities, can’t name one thing that they can say “Oh yeah, if _______ went away or _____ broke down, I could take care of that”.

That is a frightening thought if you think about it.

The fact that you must rely on daddy government for just about everything should have you a tiny bit scared. 

Now, I’m not saying you need to go fully off-grid, survivor mode!

What I am saying is that you should probably learn to do a few things yourself so that you don’t HAVE to rely on others to save you from difficult situations. 

After all, it’s better to learn certain skills when you don’t HAVE to know them.

Take action:

Think of something you’re currently paying $100+ for every month. It could be lawn care, vehicle maintenance, or even food delivery (seriously?).

Use YouTube to teach yourself how to do these things! I promise you’ll feel WAY more empowered knowing you can fix little things around the house if something breaks. Next, I plan on learning how to change the oil in our vehicles, saving a few hundred dollars a year.

Start small, learn a few useful skills, and slowly work your way up to maybe not having to rely on the government for everything in your life.

-Sebastian