Mirrors and Reflections

THE PRICE AND THE COST – The Quest for Personal Discovery

For many years we’ve used the words price and cost interchangeably.
But they don’t mean the same thing.

The price is what you pay at the supermarket for a litre of milk.
The cost is what the farmer carries to milk that cow at 4am, in the cold, every single day.

Using that same definition, let’s look at someone like Santos.
Santos is a businessman. He owns many motor spares and workshops where cars are fixed.
Looking at his life today, you might admire the price tag. But you’ll miss the cost it took to get there.

Santos paid the cost of being homeless.
He slept under the Johannesburg bridges.
His life looked hopeless. No one was coming to help.

So how did he become successful?
He got one opportunity — to work as an assistant fixing cars.
From that small place, he started his first spares shop.
That first shop gave him the opportunity to build others.

To the young person reading this, wondering,“Can I achieve my goals?”
The answer is in the cost you are willing to pay.

Waking up in cold weather and doing what you’re supposed to do.
Always showing up, even when the opportunity is small.
That, for me, is the cost of success.

Instead of asking a successful business person,“How much do you make?”
I ask,“What did it cost you?”

Because if you cannot count the cost,
you will never be ready to name your price.

---