This is an interesting topic to write about. I mean, come on...free stuff is great, right? My buddy CJ recently posted some great freebies...while another buddy, Brad, has been sharing some great, free desktop wallpapers for our enjoyment. And, it's all been great. I love free stuff. I love finding nuggets of value in things I didn't have to pay anything for. But that's not always what we are looking for...or is it?

Some time ago Sara and I found ourselves teaching English in Thailand for seven months. Our main goal in this was to build relationships with the Thai people while also providing them the skills needed to take their next step in life.

I really felt like not charging a thing for the classes. After all, they gained... we gained... how could I? I mean, it already felt like I was using them.  Add making a profit to it and I would have felt REALLY bad. But then it dawned on me... free=cheap. And, while cheap sounds good to us most of the time, it doesn't always serve us well. I mean, a cheap car sounds great until it breaks down on a drive home. A cheap watch is great until it stops when we are already late to catch a bus. A cheap phone is great until it quits as we find ourselves stranded on the roadside in some God-foresaken land...

So, in reality, we really want quality at a lower cost. But, "free" doesn't give us that feeling. For our English students, "free" meant "cheap" and cheap wasn't going to do them any good. They wanted quality at a lower cost. So, that's what we did. We provided a quality conversational English learning experience at very little cost (notive I didn't say "at no cost") and the students responded better than had we not charged something.

Don't get me wrong... I love free stuff, like I said in the first couple of lines. But, in reality... we are looking for "good deals" or "quality at a lower cost"... Think about this as you offer people things. They are looking for quality from what I can tell... just at a lower cost...