Workshop

Isn’t it interesting how a word can bring to mind more than just its common definition? For me, as well as some of you, I’m sure, the word ‘workshop’ means a place to accomplish something, and to a great extent, a refuge from all of the everyday things we each have to manage, overcome, and sometimes just flat out survive.

For children, the word conjures up images of a magical place - Santa’s Workshop - a place where childhood hopes and dreams can be packed in a sack and put under a tree.  This of course includes candies and books, electronic games and software, even clothes and pajamas. 

As you know from my last post, I recently spent a week in China.  The things I learned while there will have a tendency to slowly come out over time.  This is largely due to the fact that I was in such a state of sensory overload, I was seeing and learning things I didn’t even realize I was learning. 

One was another meaning of the word ‘workshop.’ Where for us the word conjures a vision of a small, intimate place where artisan quality work is done, either for self, family, or a select group of acquaintances; in China, a workshop is the factory itself.  The workshop is the production floor where all the work is done for a particular manufacturer and it is a completely different working environment than you and I have ever known.

The workshop I visited manufactures shaped and threaded parts.  In the part of the world that we live in, this would mean steel-toed shoes, safety glasses, and hearing protection at the least.  In China, there is probably enough electricity to run the machinery but not to run the lights in the building.  When I tell most people this, they ask, “Well, then there were skylights, right?”  No, there were not.  There was virtually no safety equipment and some of the processes had the very real possibility of removing an operator’s finger.  The amazing part of the whole thing is that the product being produced was a very high quality, beautiful product.

I realize there are times we all feel that the US has been beaten in the world market, but I am here to tell you that there are offsets we should never be willing to make.  The United States moved through times when we had children working in factories and families owed their lives to the company store.  Those times are behind us. I’ve been able to look first hand at those times and can say with certainty, good riddance.  We must be proud of what we produce and the manner in which we treat our people. 

And let’s continue to encourage the definition of ‘workshop’ as the place which produces furniture for the home and toys for kids and grandkids. 

Remember, I still want pictures and words about your workshops to share.

Tripod

Wow. In my last conversation with you, I talked about diving deep and decompression when coming up.  I had no idea exactly how deep I had gone.

Earlier this week, I came back to the surface, and found myself in China, not figuratively, literally. It was the moment in time when I came to the realization that I needed to write again, hopefully to be enjoyed by someone else, but if not, at least to help me keep my wits about me.

In the last few months, I have come to discover the strength that exists in my family and in the friends I have surrounded myself with. In a time when I was incredibly low on strength, they just kept filling me, pouring strength into me so I could continue. I will never know how to say thank you in an appropriate way, and I will never know how to pay them back. 

I have learned how to behave with grace and strength by watching my daughter move through one of the toughest times that she will probably have in her life. It is my prayer that if ever faced with the same type of situation; I will be able to act in the manner that I have come to not only appreciate but expect from her.

Alright, enough about that.  Those of you who know me are completely up to speed with what I am talking about and those of you that don't, keep reading and I am sure that over the next weeks or months, it will all come into place. 

As I rose from the funk that had been my recent days and months, I found I was up against a trip to Shanghai that I had been ignoring for quite some time because I really did not want to go.  The trip ended up being much better than expected for the business that I was going to handle, but way beyond that, I met someone I really should have met years ago. This is a person who can not only have fun, but make you think all at the same time. In the middle of getting to know a new friend, here is the mantra that I learned:
   
    Creativity
    Spontaneity
    Positive cash flow.

Through all of our lifetimes, we have been told about "tripods" that will not survive if one of the legs is removed. Examples are our own government, or the fire triangle. This new tripod is that with three items: creativity, spontaneity, and positive cash flow, you really can have fun.  With removal of one of the "legs," the tripod falls apart. 

This really struck a nerve in me as I would be willing to say that in the last few months, at least two of these have been missing all of the time, and maybe even all three of them.  That’s kind of shocking when you stop to examine this and find out what the truth is.  So, in China, on business, I worked to embrace this new tripod, at least as much as possible. As a result, I had a great time, and I brought things home to my family they truly enjoyed.  It also gave me something to think about and use as some type of guidance moving forward. As an added bonus, I made a new friend for which I am very thankful.

I am back, hopefully for a long time, working through the decompression sickness that has been several months of family medical crisis. 

IN ADDITION, I need to get back to talking about shops and “man caves” If you know someone that has a cool workspace, let me know about it and we will share it.  I have pictures coming up in the next week or so, as to what a shop in China looks like. Look forward to that.

Decompression

When a SCUBA diver dives deep, or stays down too long, they must make stops at calculated intervals to decompress on the way back to the surface.  This is to ensure the nitrogen doesn’t bubble out of their blood and cause sickness or death.

Over the past month, our family has been thrown into the deepest ocean, figuratively, and we are slowly trying to come back to the surface, making stops along the way to assure that when we get there we will be healthy.  My daughter has been diagnosed with a type of bone cancer that happens in children just as their bones stop growing.  At a time we should have been celebrating her transition from child to young adult, she was dealt a tremendous blow and as long as I live, I will never forget having to go to school to get her and tell her she had cancer.

What do I mean by decompression stops?  At this point we all KNOW that she will be OK, but between now and then there will be some horrendous times.  But between them, we will stop and breathe, and know we made one more step toward the surface, and toward normality.

Last Wednesday, when my daughter went in for her chemo treatment, she was told she might not be released until the following Tuesday when the levels of the toxins fell to the right levels in her body.

On Thursday she was told that her levels had come down more than expected but she had a long way to go.  On Friday morning, her oncology doctor, Dr T, told her the levels had dropped so much that they were sure the labs had made a mistake and they were going to re-run the test.  Friday evening, an amazed intern came into her room and told her the level was low enough and she could go home.  With that, my family breathed a collective sigh and we had the weekend to relax and enjoy each other.  This was a decompression stop for us.

Out of all we are going through, we are again reminded that when you have a good day, it should be celebrated. You don’t know when the next one will come.  When a bad day arrives, smile and get through it. You do know it won’t last forever.  In the middle of all of it, find a place or an activity (you have seen mine) that lets you maintain your sanity and get to the next good day.  Those small decompression stops will get you to the surface.

Oasis

Do you have a place that is just yours?  A place where although you may let others visit, you truly feel belongs only to you?   I have a space like this again, for the first time in years.  You have been watching me put it together and now, my space is finally ready.

But … ready for what?  Ready to build new projects for our home.  Ready to fix things that would otherwise end up in the landfill – giving new life to items that had outlived their expected life spans.  Most importantly though, it is ready for me when I need to do something physical and put all of the thoughts of the day behind.   I hope each of you have a place like that as well.

I’ve written about passion and money and I want to return to that today.  A friend sent me an article about passion that really made sense to me.  We must learn things to support our passion, even if they aren’t directly on course. 

“Knowledge, discipline, generosity. If you pursue those with all the determination you possess, one day before too long, without you even knowing it, the chance to realize your most spectacular dreams will come gently tap you on the shoulder and whisper... let's go.  And you'll be ready.”           TED’s Chris Anderson addresses Harvard’s graduating architects

I would encourage you each to read the entire speech Chris Anderson gave to that graduating class.  He had a lot of good things to say, and many made me consider where I am, and where I would like to be.  I have put in place the mechanism that can catapult me to the place I would like to end up, now I will continue to pursue things that support my passion. 

This means three things to me.  First, I will continue to be engaged and involved with those that I know.  This group has always been the most supportive and has always helped me to think about what is next.

Second, I will continue to develop skills that make me a better craftsman.  This means I will continue to build for family and friends, working diligently to find better techniques and ways to do things. 

And third, I will think about what skills I need to add to the set of personal “tools” that I possess now.  Do I need to be a better public speaker?  Do I need to learn to weld? 

And then I need to show patience and perseverance and wait for the opportunity to present itself….and it will.

As many of you know, we’ve had some troubling medical news in our family as of late.  I will do anything and everything my daughter needs me to do to help her to be 100% again.  But, and I know she will agree with me, part of taking care of her is taking care of myself as well.  And for any of us to do that, we need to continue to grow.  So, grow I will.

How about you?

Perspective

Interestingly enough, I listened to a speaker on Monday night tell a group of high school Juniors and Seniors that if they followed their passions, the money would take care of itself.  Hum … I am just not sure I necessarily agree with that.  So, I’ve been thinking about it the last couple of days, particularly in light of some really nasty medical news that my family has encountered.  And, as is typically my case, I have some observations and would love to hear back from any of you with opinions of your own.

I have told you in past writing that I tend to keep my passion as an avocation rather than making it my profession.  In doing that, I’ve probably never gotten as good at it as if I would have jumped in and said, "I will be a cabinet maker."  I have tinkered with woodworking, learning a lot but never really perfecting the techniques that I use.  I can and do make pretty furniture and beautiful casework, but I know that had I committed to it with my entire being I would be better today.

At the same time, I did commit myself completely to the management of people.  And in this arena, I believe that I am very good.  This has provided a very comfortable living for myself and my family, and put me in a position that I believed would allow me to retire someday.  For those of us in my generation, this goal has become much more elusive in the last few years than it was in our "early" years. 

That all changed last week.  There has been a change in our family and I have already decided, without reservation, that I would and will spend every cent I have to make it right again.  And, I know we will make it right.

So, the question for me comes full circle.  If I would have followed my passion, would the money have taken care of itself?

Wow, how do you even think about that?  On one hand, maybe with the commitment that I would have made I would have ended up as one of the most prestigious craftsmen in the country, commanding tens of thousands of dollars for a single piece of furniture.  On the other hand, maybe I am as good now as I ever would have been and I’d be living today with much less, but I would have followed my passion all of those years.

So, it kind of becomes one of those chicken/egg arguments.  Which came first?  Here is what I have come to believe in the last little bit.  We all have to do something that makes us smile … EVERY DAY.  If what we are doing does not do that, we have to stop what we are doing and regroup.  Life is just too short to do anything else.  So, I am going home tonight to make sure Andrew loves Engineering and to let Megan know that if she wants to swim with sharks, I will take pictures.  As far as Sara, it is time to get after her quilting business.

Please think positive thoughts for my daughter.  She is beginning a long journey back to good health.  Keep her close to your heart.  Thanks

Carpentry vs. Cabinetmaking

While I was working on the remaining section of my stairs the other night, I asked myself the question, "Are you a cabinetmaker or a carpenter"?  For me the answer came easily.  I am a carpenter.

For what I do, being a good carpenter is enough.  I put things together in the best way, and joints typically fit the way that I want them to.  I end up with projects that are functional and have the right form and fit.  But, from the perspective of a cabinetmaker, I am not there.  There is no "grace and beauty" to what I do.  I am not a cabinetmaker, nor am I a furniture builder.  I do however aspire to be both and I will continue to strive to accomplish these levels of craftsmanship.  But what am I doing to achieve these levels?

I wonder if there is a like comparison in other endeavors.  I am sure there is.  It seems to me that sometimes we go through our lives in a state of mediocrity, happy with the level of our performance and hoping that we will be able to improve our performance to something better.  What happened to the way we approached things when we were young?  I remember Andrew’s second Pinewood Derby.  He absolutely believed that we would win; because we had worked on his car together and there was no way that anyone could be better than that.  We didn’t win, and he was crushed.  Is that the start of limiting ourselves to just be OK, so it doesn’t hurt so much when we are not great?

We all know excellence when we see it.  It is going to the Drake Relays and watching a world class athlete set a new record.  But it is also watching a mother in the grocery store deal with three kids who are having fits appropriately, not screaming or grabbing them by their arm.  I need to take time to recognize excellent behavior in others and tell them about it, and I need to challenge myself to excellence in my own life. 

Speaking for me, it is time to stop accepting the mediocre - in my personal life and in my professional life. I need others around me to do the same.  I will push toward a higher level of expertise in my carpentry until I call myself a cabinetmaker. 

Life is a journey.  Standing still in the place where we are comfortable doesn’t move us forward and doesn’t move us past mediocrity.  I will move forward.  I will challenge and encourage you to move forward as well if you will do the same for me.  This is how we can make our part of the world just a little bit better.

Are you in?

Steam

OK, I promised to get back to man-caves and here I am.

On occasion you get a chance to see someone’s passion exemplified in the shop they have.  Such is the case with Jay Leno.

I watch and absolutely love the television series “Modern Marvels” on the History channel.  My kids, Andrew and Meg, give me crap about it at times, but I find pure joy in discovering the history of things and how they work.  I’ve watched everything from engineering disasters to the history of the shovel.  My son continues to give me a hard time about that episode – who calls the shovel a “Modern Marvel”?

Anyway, one of the latest episodes was about steam power and how it shaped our past and powers our everyday. Enter Jay Leno and his shop.  Many of you know that Jay is very much into autos and has a garage/shop.  It is 17,000 square feet!  The space I am working in is about 800 sq. ft. and I can’t believe how much space I have.  Jay has a fully functional machine shop in the corner of his shop; I have a small space that will eventually be an office.  BUT, either way, both are filled with what we love.

When I was young and thinking about what I wanted to be when I grew up, my father told me I should find work that I like and leave what I love for my avocation.  I’ve tried to do that with woodworking.  There are those with greater skill than me when it comes to woodworking, but I doubt there are many who love what they are doing the way I love working in my shop.  I get excited even when faced with a long list of next steps to improving my space and projects to be done.

In the meantime though, let’s appreciate those who have already made the trip.  In this case, Jay Leno who has automobiles, steam cars, and stationary steam engines in his shop.  To a gentleman that added a steam generator behind his shop to power his steam engines – my hat is off to you, Jay.  It shows your passion.  Job well done but don’t quit now.  Show the rest of us the way to go.  And for any of you who are reading this and have a shop, drop me a line and tell me about your space and your passion.  I might just include some of your stories in a future post.

Have a great day and keep after it.

Twenty Years

I spent a lot of the last few days in meetings and on the road.  In the past, this always meant I had a lot of time to think.  Historically when I would come off the road, the people who work around me just waited for a download of the things I worked out while traveling.  This week was different.

This week I spent time wondering how I lost twenty years.  I was thirty - then I was fifty and there just wasn’t twenty years of time in between.  Don’t misunderstand me; there are some great memories in there: having children and watching them grow; friends and acquaintances; both good and great adventures.  However, there just aren’t twenty years of memories in there.  So, upon deeper thought and consideration, it strikes me that the part that I can not remember is the work.  Most of my work history during this time was spent in the lumber industry, both retail and distribution.   I learned a ton, all of which I remember, but I can’t remember the time itself.  Do you suppose this was a survival mechanism, or a flaw in me?

Those twenty years were hard years.  The greatest chunk of time was spent working at Payless Cashways, fighting to save a company that wasn’t to survive.  I can say that now, looking back; but when in the middle of the fight, it was impossible to have the long view that history brings.  The group of people that I worked with was (and still is) very committed to companies that we worked for, spending untold hours and long weeks making sure everything was (and is) done at the highest possible level.  It was the right thing to do.  Or was it?

So, from my travel and thought processes this week comes the following challenge - not to the people that I work with, like usual - but rather to myself and each of you.  How do we make sure that our children, our friends and even our future selves, don’t get lost while doing the right thing for the job?  How do we make sure that we capture every day as a gem to hold and remember?  How do I make sure that I teach this to my son and daughter?

Well, the first thing I am going to do is talk about it … a lot.  This is the beginning, but it isn’t the end.

Thanks for taking this little detour into my thoughts.  The next thing that you will hear from me about will be mancave stuff again.  I have a couple of GREAT thoughts going on there.

Plateaus

Tuesday night I was working at the Toy Box when it struck me how many ways we plateau in our lives. The one that is of course the most personal to me regards weight as I have spent a lifetime attempting to lose it, only to plateau time after time and find myself unable to push through to the next level. 

It is surprising though as you really take time to contemplate it, how many other examples there are.  Take the project I am in the middle of.  I have about exhausted the lumber I bought for the project and have nearly accomplished all of the work I was committed to in this stage.  I have hit a plateau.  And as I sit and think about it, I kind of seem to be rocking back on my heels, saying "That is OK."  Why am I not pushing forward to the next step of the project?

At work we all face the same thing.  I have spent a lifetime of trying to make things better: operations, sales, etc.  I have had a good deal of success in many of these things, but have always faced a plateau level that I seemed to be comfortable with.  And, as I look back across my career, that is typically when I got bored with what I was doing.

Alright, some of you know that one of my favorite authors is Seth Godin.  I think I may be having a moment where Seth would tell me that I heed to push my lizard brain out of the way and just "ship."  For those of you not initiated into the Godin way, in this case this means "Just Do IT."  So, I will regroup, set a larger goal and try to not let progress flatten out into a plateau.  This is my commitment for the day.  What is yours?

Tools

I was working at the Toybox Tuesday night and I started thinking about how Andrew (my son) and I had learned to use tools.  In particular, I thought about nail guns. I own four, all from Stanley Bostich, and I can’t imagine building anything without them.  They are always one of the first tools pulled out for any project.

Anyway, when my father died, my mom sold the table saw because she was told that was the only piece of equipment I could really hurt myself with.  There might have been a question as to the wood lathe, but what the heck.  So, I had a relatively complete shop that was mine to play in and since then, that is really what I have done.  That is the way I learned much of what I know today, trial and error.

Fortunately for me, and it actually was the same for Andrew, we both had good High School Industrial Arts teachers.  Mine was Russ Bennett and he taught me how to use saws - table and radial arm, and more importantly to respect the power of each.

So, as I think about air nailers, and how people learn to use them, I circle back to some of this basic training.  Hundreds of people a year get hurt with nailers. As I learned to use them, and as I’ve taught Andrew: first and foremost, respect their power and what they are built to do - drive pieces of steel through hard objects.  If you always remember that, you are good to go.

The last weekend Andrew was here, he watched me for about 3/4 of the weekend use my framing nailer.  A couple of different times I asked him to nail something and he declined.  We talked about safety with equipment like this and before we were done, not only had he learned to use them safely, but had added a little bit from his generation.

Gangsta style.....

Be safe out there.

Welcome

Welcome.  You have arrived at the beginning of what I hope to be an interesting and funfilled journey together.  A couple of years ago, I had someone tell me that if someone could knock on the door to your "man-cave" and tell you to come upstairs for dinner, it really wasn't all that you wanted it to be.  So, after a lot of thought and consideration, in November of last year, I bought a building that will act now and forever as my shop (a.k.a. "man-cave").  Welcome to the journey that makes it just right.  Also, understand that there is a standing invitation to share with me what you have done to fuel your desire, as that is what this is all about for me.

Let's go back to the beginning.  I came from a family that was always handy.  We were typically inclined to figure out how to fix things ourselves rather than spending money to have others take care of issues.  My father was a woodworker, and at a very early age (probably 4-5) I learned how to sand bowls on the turning lathe.  These were some of the most wonderful times of my life.  My father died when I was still very young, but my grandfather and my uncle Norm continued to fuel the desire in me to understand all things mechanical.  I was living in a wonderful time when things around the house broke, and were held together with screws so they were easily dismantled.  I remember some TVs that I took apart and partially reassembled several times.

Fast forward to High School.  I went to a school that offered two years of wood shop, but through some persistence, I got the shop teacher to offer an Independent study in wood shop.  What did this mean to me?  I got to take shop all four years of high school, and my senior year I spent half of every day in the shop.  By that time, I was torn between being an Industrial Arts teacher and going on to some other type of education.  My dad had always told me to keep the thing that you loved as your hobby, not your job.  Because of this, I went to Drake in business.  But since then, every place I have lived, I’ve had a shop, and in all of them, I have remodeled the house through that shop.

This time is different though.  Rather than fitting into the space that I had, making it work and moving things multiple times, I am building this one from the ground up.  I started with a 25'x40' space and over the next several months I will turn it into my oasis.  I am currently working on the office within this space.  This will give me a place to have a drafting table/desk and a refrigerator, as well as a couch to take a nap. 

This should be quite the trip.  Please come along for all of the trials and tribulations.