Me Love You Long Time

Prostitutes and pimps are usually excellent at business. They have to exist without any sense of formal regulation, cooperate, find clients, not get robbed or raped, and still make a profit at the end of the day.

They can’t sell their services for too low or too much, or else they’ll get the wrong kind of attention. They’re forced to think well ahead and be tactical every day of their life. They do these because they have to make what could be life or death decisions on the fly and they have very little recourse when things do go south.

We’re all a bit like prostitutes and pimps (some more than others and which side is up to each individual). Each of us sells some part of us whether its our expertise, skill, or time (or body) to whomever we find a fair trade with. We wish we could sell them for more, more often than not, but that’s where we actually should be more like the ladies of the night.

Too many developers hop jobs because it’s not easy and they have an inflated sense of what they can actually do. Too many startup founders think they’ve got the next big thing sitting between their ears. Too many construction workers refuse to do anything more than swing a hammer when they might be able to get so much more out of life if they used it differently.

Compared to these people, hookers tend to look a lot less like heretical pariah and more like they might have some sense to be gleaned by more scrupulous passersby. Developers with inflated egos won’t keep up with the times and will run out of their usefulness within a matter of months, or years if they’re lucky. Founders who can’t keep some objectivity will waste their, and others’, time and resources chasing a mirage. Laborers will continue to stare at the dirt unless they take the risk of looking up, setting their sights on some more distant target, and actually working to get there.

If you can’t think as far ahead and as practically as a prostitute or pimp, then what are you really worth? How much longer will you still be useful, helpful, or relevant to anyone? What I’m really asking is, will me still love you long time?

I guess you could always fall back on the world’s oldest profession…you might even learn something useful, too.