“MEH” AND THE HAPPINESS CURVE
In life, we experience highs, lows, and lots of time that is just “meh.” It’s not the most exciting nor the most devastating. It’s just life. My mother once told me that you don’t want to be very interesting to your doctor, that it is much better to be boring when it comes to your health. The Real Estate analogy would be to not be very interesting to your building envelope specialist, that it is much better to not have any unexplained water infiltration. So maybe “meh” is okay. Think about the stock market – it’s current state of volatility has many people anxious. Our current US President Donald J. Trump seems to abhor the “meh” and to thrive in the volatility of highs and lows. This volatility has caused most Americans and most citizens of the world to be anxious most of the time about world politics. We look forward to a quiet week at some point in the future. We look forward to “meh”.
Design and construction projects (and probably other projects, like software development) follow a volatile path that we call the “happiness curve”. It starts with a super high after we have completed the design that fulfills our clients’ wants and needs, and falls when the pricing comes in. The curve moves higher once construction starts, but then drops to its lowest low, just before completion, when it seems like the construction is never ending. The curve comes back up at the end when our clients can truly enjoy what we, collectively, have created. Sometimes the long and winding road can lead to a place that is just right. With LS&A as your guide throughout you will know what to expect, so that those highs and lows will be less scary.
If you want a copy of our “happiness curve,” please email us at koko@lesliesaul.com and we’ll send it to you. We have put together a set of project planning tools that can help you plan for what’s important at the beginning of every design and construction project. Email us with details of your project and we’ll share the tools that we think might be helpful to you.