If I read another beauty column guaranteeing me a “five-minute make-up routine’, I’ll throw a bottle of overpriced serum at the author. Unfortunately, I’ve only got myself to blame.  I always get suckered in by the promise of such articles. I want to look polished and put together each day. I want my skin to be clean and clear, my make-up soft and pretty and yes indeed, I want that to magically happen in the stolen spare seconds I actually have before work each day.

There’s a simple business rule, which is: You only get to pick two. That is for every product you might need there is one that can be delivered faster, another that can be delivered cheaper and one that delivers higher quality. You can’t have it all though. You can only pick two of those three options. No one product does everything and if it says it will, that’s just clever (and misleading) advertising.