If You Meet the Buddha in the Road Kill Him

Now that I have your attention, let me discuss the difference between a consultant and a subcontractor. When I served as a volunteer math tutor at our local high school, I quickly discovered the students were looking for a subcontractor, someone who would do would do their homework for them. I told them I was offering a consulting service that would aid them in completing their homework assignments on their own.

In the course of our life we need both subcontractors and consultants. Which to use or when is your decision. My mother has always done the family taxes. Back in the days when my father owned a farm and a rental property, the family taxes constituted quite an undertaking requiring considerable research into things like scheduled depreciation. My mother would seek out “consultants” in the course of her studies, but she would never think to subcontract out the effort to a Certified Public Accountant. On the other hand, I put all my tax documents into a grocery sack and carry the entire mess over to my wonderful CPA. She tells me what I forgot to include in the bag and takes over. I want a subcontractor. When I first purchased my house, I leased it back to the previous owner until his new house was finished. When I couldn’t figure out how to account for this on my tax forms, I went to a professional who pointed out I had converted a rental property into real property when I moved into my house and was due a sizable deduction. Since then, I have relied on experts to complete my tax forms.

I absolutely would never trust someone else to make my investment decisions for me. I am not looking subcontract my decision making authority to a mutual fund salesman or a hedge fund manager. If I am going to lose my money, I am not going to pay someone else to do it for me. It will be the result of my own short comings. In this instance, I am constantly on the lookout for good consultants. I read the research provided by my brokerage account, I read articles on reliable Internet sites like The Motley Fool, and Seeking Alpha. I read wild Macroeconomic rants on sites like Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis, oftwominds, and Paul Krugman’s Conscience of a Liberal. I even pay for subscription newsletters that reinforce my prejudices in favor of a balanced portfolio of cash, bonds, gold, and dividend paying stocks. I have discovered that I can learn something of value from almost everyone, but on this road I want to take responsibility for my own decisions.

Oh, “If you meet the Buddha in the road kill him,” where did that come from? In Zen Buddhism the master would sometimes present a student with a “thought experiment” called a koan that could not be solved using normal methods of understanding. Either it was a question that could not be answered using logic, "Two hands clap and there is a sound; what is the sound of one hand clapping?" Or it was a statement that the student would find culturally shocking, such as “If you meet the Buddha in the road kill him.” Of course the master is not instructing his student to kill a literal Buddha. The road is the path of understanding and the Buddha represent a great teacher. If the student stops walking the path, believing that he has found own enlightenment in the teachings another he has blown it. The great teacher can be nothing more than a consultant on the student’s personal journey. In this case the student should be looking for consultants not a subcontractor.

One more thing before you go, “Let’s be careful out there.”