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Have you been watching the TV show, “Flipping Out” on the Bravo network? It features a real estate flipper named Jeff Lewis who buys and sells expensive Southern California real estate along with his staff of contractors and assistants.

I personally find the world of real estate fascinating, but I watch the show for an entirely different reason….the extreme and highly-watchable Jeff Lewis!

What is interesting about Jeff Lewis is that he outsources nearly everything in his life….from putting gas in his car, to grocery shopping, to cleaning, organizing, packing his house for a move, and even picking up his lunch from a fast food joint.

In fact, it occurred to me that the bulk of his day isn’t really spent working so much as managing all of the tasks and people in his life. He creates “to-do” lists for everyone on his staff and prints them up for them each day. Actually, to be accurate, he dictates the tasks to his assistant who then follows through with the printing of the lists. His assistant Jenni even dials the phone for him when he needs to make a call!

Now normally, I would see someone like Jeff Lewis and assume that this guy has it all together and that these people are helping him succeed. But what I see instead is someone whose major frustrations come from the management of the people who are trusted with these tasks.

Now, of course I understand that we are only seeing what Bravo wants us to see and that the real story of the show is the extreme level that Jeff Lewis applies to the most mundane. I also realize that the relationships between Jeff and the staff are what are driving the show, so of course we see human drama rather than real work being accomplished.

But I have to say that I see an unhappy person who has created a situation where the slightest hitch in a schedule or unplanned snafu causes major disruption in his life. He has literally outsourced his entire life and left himself with a situation where he has become completely dependent on other people.

This is a single man without children who runs a small business from his home. He has a housekeeper, a dog walker, someone whose entire job is to sweep and take out the trash at his house and job sites, a personal assistant who does the shopping and errands and an executive assistant who handles everything business related.

Also on his payroll are three general contractors, two real estate agents, two psychics, a spiritual healer and a pet massage therapist. Whew! What a list!

I’m all for outsourcing…believe me! If there is someone who can do something better and faster than you can and it saves you money or time I say go for it! But isn’t there a limit? At what point do you become a slave to your own outsourcing to the point where you can’t function without someone helping you?

Obviously, Jeff Lewis is someone who needs to have people around him working for him which is likely the reason why he is never alone. My husband noted that it seems more like he is paying people to spend time with him and be his friends more so that paying them to work. Perhaps that’s the case and to each their own. But I see “Flipping Out” more as a lesson in how NOT to outsource.

Outsourcing should be a practice that allows you to be more of who you were meant to be. If you aren’t good at something or simply hate a task, outsourcing frees up your time and mental energy for something that you ARE good at or that you enjoy. It should be something that you integrate into your life, rather than wrapping your life around outsourcing.

Like anything, it should be done in moderation so that you are still capable of guiding your own life and handling the hiccups that come along the way.

What do you think? If you’ve seen the show do you see the extremes I see? How do you use outsourcing in moderation in your life?

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