Wii a Wii my kingdom for a Wii

It took me a little time to figure out the life lesson here, but the whole time I was going through this experience I knew if I kept asking the right questions I would uncover some fundamental errors in my thinking.

Just a few short weeks ago I discovered that the primary gift my son wanted for Christmas was a Nintendo Wii. It is possible you don’t know what a Wii is. However, if you have or know someone with a child between 6 and 15 years old, you are probably all too well aware that a Wii is an extremely hard to find game system. Hang on a minute because that is not exactly true. You could find a Wii very simply if you were willing to pay the premium, just about double the price.

Where ever we looked, Ebay, Craigslist, it didn’t matter, Wii’s were available. The problem was they were being sold for about $400 to $500, when the retail price was $249.

Now instinctively I am a very, very cheap person. I just don’t like spending money needlessly when it just doesn’t seem necessary. This combined with the fact that “I’m a man and can do anything I set my mind too”, yeah right. Anyway my quest to find a Wii began with somewhat of a lack luster start. Before we were aware that these machines couldn’t be found in stores I went to a few Wal Mart’s, Target’s, Best Buy’s, Circuit City's, Comp USA's, Micro Center, and asked “do you have any Wii’s in stock?”. The answer was always “NO”, along with the peculiar look which seemed to say much more than “NO”. In fact if I didn’t know better these people were getting asked this question over a 100 times a day. We will probably be hearing about Wii syndrome, an affliction suffered by all the clerks working during Christmas of 2006.

I will try to keep this pretty simple. My wife and I began scouring the city about 3 weeks prior to Christmas looking for this machine. Being confident we had plenty of time I would casually look here and there. Then casual looking began to turn into a frenzied search. I camped out and literally drove over 100 miles one night going to every Wal Mart in the city.

No kidding I did some incredibly stupid things looking for this machine. The night I got up a 4:30am just to go camp out with the other Wii hopefuls I began to really think about this. I even opened my laptop and began reading an article on time vs. money. The more I thought about it I began to consider the thought that my time was not being very well spent. “I should be in bed” I kept thinking as I was sitting on the cold concrete sidewalk outside of Circuit City, hoping the 22nd place in line would be sufficient. The guy at the front of the line said this was his third week in a row camping out and the past few weeks they had 25 game systems.

The more I read this article on time vs. money it began to occur to me how much we will sacrifice in the form of time in lue of money.

Honestly consider how many times you have driven around and around an extra few blocks just to save a few dollars in parking, or how many times we insist upon fixing something our self rather than pay a professional, or search the net looking for that "FREE" secret to wealth.

Nothing is free and time or money must be spent on just about anything of value. Depending on your desired outcome or perceived value of time you will invest accordingly to your belief or perceived value of your time. My hope here is that you will begin to recognize, as I did that cold night waiting in line, that we sometimes waste our valuable time in exchange for little or no monetary gain. Proof of this is unlike the two weekends prior where the store had 25 Wii’s, this weekend the store only received 12. Remember I was in 22^nd place in line, no Wii for me. I left completely empty handed with lost time and nothing to show for it except for this lesson.

Don't fret I got my Wii, but I didn't waste anymore time I spent money which is far less valuable to me. Consider this, I paid $400, and the guy I bought it from came to meet me a mile from my home. It literally took me less than 10 minutes. Yes I pad a premium of $150, but consider this. When I bought my Wii I was happy that I didn’t loose any more sleep and was able to enjoy the remaining weekends approaching Christmas.

I was even happier when this young man told me what he went through to purchase it. He is a student currently going to the same college I graduated from so we spoke for a little while. After hearing about what he and his friends went through to get these machines I was compelled to think about the weeks prior to my purchase.

You see this young man and his friends waited at times in the rain the cold and for up to 10 hours waiting for the store to open. “You have to get there early” he said and he was even kind enough to give me tips on web sites to use and places which were the most accommodating for purchasing a system. What makes this even more disturbing is when you consider the amount of time and effort he went through to get these machines; yes he sold more than one. I did a rough calculation based on what we talked about and I figure he was making a little less than $15 per hour. Wow when you think about it that way I really was a fool for giving up my sleep for $15 per hour.

The more I thought about this the more I realized that I would be disappointed in anyone I work with if they had done what I had done just being stubborn.

Like I said in the beginning though. I am determined and live my life with undaunted drive for improvement. With that said I may have “wasted” a few hours of my life driving around looking for a child’s toy. But the insight I have gained because of my willingness to look deep into the emotions will save me countless hours in the future.

If there is a next time I will sleep in and just buy it. And I will be thankful for the man or woman who so generously gave their time and effort to obtain the goods I needed.

Time is valuable use it wisely