Penny Wise & Pound Foolish
This is a saying I often heard around my house – penny wise and pound foolish. It’s one of those age old lessons in life that many fail to learn. Unfortunately, I keep witnessing it time and time again even today among people and businesses.
The basic meaning of this saying is that you want to save little money at the cost of big money. Don’t invest now in big things but do little things piece meal which lead to nothing much. The long term results suffer.
I remember saying this to my mother about investing in the house, in equipment we need etc. all because she learnt from her mother to be penny wise and pound foolish. Our old house had leaks, needed to be re-wired, and because my grandmother kept doing patchwork, in the long run, doing the repairs cost much more than had she actually attended to the required repair work at each given time.
Similarly, I have seen how many companies don’t want to invest in brands, in people, in long term returns. Instead, they will waste small amounts of money that in the long term accumulate to far more than what they should have invested in the beginning.
This mindset is truly a crippling one, especially for those of us who have a long term vision and lateral thinking. It’s one of those habits that really should be avoided at all costs.