I went out to dinner last night with a friend wearing a Patagonia shirt I bought thirty years ago. It looks just like the day I bought it and I wear it a lot in the summer. Expensive? Yes, but not in terms of cost per wear, so to speak. Most of my shirts last about five to ten years. The Patagonia shirt wasn’t five times as expensive, it was twice as expensive.

Based on fifty years of experience in business, I’d say only about thirty percent of the companies and people I’ve dealt with, and employees I’ve hired, have a concept of quality and only about ten percent really care. Integrity, meeting commitments, is expensive in the short term and inexpensive in the long.

I had a friend, Herb Pohl, incredible long-distance wilderness paddler who did most of his long Labrador wilderness trips solo. He used to say to me, “A long life is vastly overrated.”

A quality life, a good life, is underrated perhaps because it has a price. It takes thought, effort. It’s not just go with the flow. It is dig down deep. Treat your life with the respect that a precious gift deserves.

The price you pay for a quality life, quality friendships, quality work is worth it.