Woodworking 101: My Journey As A Scroll Saw Pattern Designer #824: Patience

I started writing a blog once already today. I had half a page done, and I didn’t really like how it read, so I deleted it. The funny part of it was that the subject of the post was ‘indecision.’ Perhaps it should have been written after all.

While going through the many changes that our business is experiencing at this time. it is sometimes difficult to know if what we are doing is the right thing. I suppose there is nothing in this life that is certain, and the only way we will really find out whether we are heading in the right direction is to give new things a try. Sailing these uncharted waters can be a bit uncomfortable though, and I am certain that is the root of our indecisiveness.

We are exploring some new avenues for our patterns right now. We are fortunate that we have many opportunities in front of us and probably the most difficult part is to decide which one to pursue first. Many of them have promise, and naturally we want to pick the ones that will be the most beneficial to our company at this time.

We are often asked by customers who are starting their own businesses which avenue they should follow. To me, that is a very difficult question to answer, as there are just too many variables for us to give blanket advice that will work for everyone. While we would like to help, we do understand that each person has different circumstances, and what will work for one will not work for someone else. The best advice that we could give them is to try things out and see what works best for them. I believe that is the only way that one will find true success, and there is no short cut we can offer.

It is times such as this when we realize that we need to take our own advice and just give the new things a try. Whether they fail or not will dictate further decisions that we will make, but without giving some of these new things a chance, we will never know.

I am working on some new ideas right now that are like this. It involves doing something that I haven’t yet done and will introduce our company to a market that we have not yet been involved in. In some ways, it is rather scary for me. As with any new venture, the potential to fail is certainly present. While I have been comfortable here in my niche of creating scroll saw patterns, both Keith and I feel that it is time to ‘leave the nest’ and branch out into other aspects of woodworking. We are certain that there will be a learning curve to this, but we are ready for that, as we feel that we do have a lot to contribute to this area and it may be something that will be good for us in the long run.

I went through this a bit when I decided to start creating painting patterns again. There was a stretch of several years where I had not been involved in the painting community at all, and I had to start at the bottom all over again. After being somewhat recognized in the scroll sawing world, the painters had no knowledge at all of me, and it was somewhat of a scary experience to say the least.

But I felt strongly (as I do now) that I had something positive to contribute to this area of creativity and while it has been a good deal of work, I feel as if I am beginning to make a small foothold in that area. I am making progress. I just need to hold that thought and bring it to this new branch that we are considering.

I am sure there will be a learning curve here too. I don’t for a minute believe that I will find ‘instant success’ in this new venture, but by knowing that and being prepared for it, I believe that eventually the patience will pay off and we will do OK.

I will certainly talk a little more about these new things in future posts. I am just now starting to get into the new frame of thinking about it, and I don’t want to talk about it in detail quite yet. I am sure it won’t be long, but I need to develop a sense of comfort in what I am doing before I do so. I hope you all understand.

Patience is an essential ingredient in success. It saddens me to think of all the opportunities that have been lost by those who haven’t been patient enough to allow them to develop. It does however take a conscious effort on our part to be patient sometimes when we are excited about a new endeavor. I am going to try my best.