The Value of Experience

The ABC Company (not its real name) had an ancient boiler that heated its building. One cold winter day, the boiler went out, plunging the building into arctic temperatures. The President of the company called all around town trying to find someone who could repair the unit, but no one had experience on such an old piece of equipment. Finally, in desperation, the President called the retired facility manager for the company to come take a look. The old facility manager came in, took a look at the boiler, and spent a minute tightening a bolt. The boiler then started up perfectly. The facility manager then gave an invoice to the President for $500.00. The President replied: “$500.00 for five minutes of work is ridiculous! Why do you think it’s worth so much?” The facility manager took the bill, and wrote the following upon it: Value of tightening bolt: $5.00 Value of years of experience learning which bolt to tighten: $495.00 When you consult with our firm, you should know that we have over thirty years of combined legal experience behind our name.