I've always said that if something doesn't catch my attention, it probably doesn't catch the attention of many others. I think I'm a pretty normal kinda guy (although there are some that may scoff at that), so if blogs haven't been on my radar, then they probably aren't for most. I've been wrong before, many times, so here goes...
I've been telling the story of how my business started for 15 years now, and I get a lot of "What a great story" and "You're livin' the dream!" kinda comments, so I'm putting it in writing here finally.
Now, when people hear the story of my business, of course I include all the successful parts, like selling my 50,000th hand made Cottage Mill®, or the marriage proposal when someone first saw my creation, but I neglect to mention the drill press injuries, the thefts in my show booth, and the repetitive strain injury in my right arm. That kills the buzz.
Having said all that, it's well worth the cost.
As I type this, I'm home in my bathrobe, drinking coffee made using fresh ground coffee ground in my 3D printed coffee bean grinder prototype (not the previously mentioned prototype (there's many)). My cat Crusty is sitting on the chair beside me, looking at me with the "Where's my freakin' breakfast" look on her face, and my Christmas tree is still up and on reminding me of all the people who opened up their gifts and wondered "What the hell? A tree branch as a gift!"
My table is a shit show. I look down and see 4 Skeppshult pans I need to package, weigh, measure, and ship before 2:30 today. I see a prototype of a new product waiting for me to work on. My 3D printer is sitting downstairs with lots to print and nothing currently printing, etc. My shop is currently even worse.
But then there's my commute. When I get all the admin stuff done, my travel time to my main production site is literally 12 steps into my 2 car garage shop. It's heated with a closed combustion natural gas radiant heater, and is as streamlined as possible, but could use a little lot of TLC.
And here I sit, on yet another tangent, typing out my fist blog, as deadlines creep closer.
But tangents are what started the whole thing. 15 years ago, I should have been making furniture, as was the intention for starting the business. Or I should have been hitting the road looking for another job in my previous telecommunications industry life. But no, I went on a tangent and started making some traditional turned pepper mills on my lathe for gifts. In the middle of that I went on a tangent and decided to cut down a dead Elm tree in my backyard before it fell on its own. When it fell, the bark came off some branches, and revealed some pretty cool bug galleries. I went on a 3rd tangent and decided to try to make a pepper mill out of the branch. It worked. I made 3. My neighbors bought them all, and here I sit, 15 years later, deep in the tangent inception, loving life.
So when I see my kids get distracted by something, I first look at what it is. Their phones. Nope! Get off! Something creative or social, no problem. Enjoy. You never know where it will lead.