Respect The Knowledge and Value of others.

Freda Savahl
2 min readApr 24, 2024

Sharing a story told by Rahd-D.

Photo by Enis Yavuz on Unsplash

The Ship Mechanic:

A large vessel’s engine malfunctioned, and no one could repair it, so they recruited a Mechanical Engineer with more than 30 years of experience.

He meticulously inspected the engine, examining every detail from top to bottom. Once he finished, he unloaded his bag, retrieved a small hammer, and gently tapped on different areas of the engine. Finally, the engine sprang back to life and was fixed!

One week later, the shipowner received a report from the skilled engineer stating that the cost of repairing the enormous ship’s engine would be $20,000.

“What?!” exclaimed the owner.

“Please provide us with a detailed bill as it seems that you have not done much work.”

The engineer responded:

“The answer is easy,

  • To tap with the hammer costs $2.00
  • To know where to knock and how much to hit for a cost of $19,998.
  • If I take 30 minutes to do a job, it’s because I spent 20 years learning how to do it in 30 minutes. You don’t pay me for the 30 minutes; you pay me for the years.”

In conclusion:

Appreciating someone’s expertise and experience is essential, as these are the fruits of their struggles, experiments, and even tears.

Thank you, readers for your time & support.

I rewrote the story from an article written by Radh. D. who lives in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Source: https://www.quora.com/profile/Radh-D

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Freda Savahl

Retired Nurse Practitioner WHC /Contract Provider Deployment Military Services. US Citizen. Immigrant from South Africa 1978.