Are you an owner or a renter?

Today I realized that I am a renter. Literally, I am renting the house I live in with some other friends.

And because I am a renter, I have a certain attitude that displays itself in how I care for my house.

For the past few months, I and a few of my house-mates noticed that the tap water and shower was not as hot as it used to be. Immediately, my reaction was to tell the house management about the problem, and wait for them to fix it.

Finally after months of pestering, the management suggested we actually look at the boiler for any leaks. So I checked it this evening, and I found no leaks. Yet I also noticed something that I would have seen a lot earlier if I had bothered to look at the boiler previously. The thermostat knob was set to warm. So I turned the thermostat to a higher setting and a few minutes later, we had hot water again!

The problem was the boiler's thermostat was set to warm instead of hot

This slightly embarrassing incident taught me a valuable lesson about the mindset of ownership versus the mindset of a renter. When there is a problem in any situation, an owner immediately takes responsibility to fix it no matter how tired he is or how inconvenient the solution may be. But a renter complains about the problem and waits for someone else to fix it until he's forced to deal with it.

I also realized that even if I am a renter in my house, I should have the attitude of an owner if I want to get problems fixed a little quicker! I guess this applies to any situation where there are problems that need to be fixed. Rather than just complain about it, I should take responsibility if I really want to get anywhere.