Sometimes peers can be like crabs in pail. If they see you trying to lift yourself up and out of the bucket they try an grab a hold expecting you to be miserable in like company. That could be envy, or perhaps it is just that they want to save you from the rejection they have grown comfortable living with. We do better to dismiss such reflections as "other" , and not of our own agency. Wait for it.
I have had occasions when even friends and even family have unintentionally poked fun or criticized a thing that I had designed. It isn't their fault really, I am not one to hide my work behind a curtain until the last finishing touches have been applied. There is no unveiling the piece. I just kinda let it all hang out, so to speak. Rather than go into debt or even seek investors I have preferred (and am known to) to cobble together my own prototypes and when I think it might be good enough for someone I will hang a sign on it which reads: FOR SALE (AS IS) Make an Offer.
This is usually the point when I begin to get heckled. I have heard it all "Haha", "How are you going to make any money" (Well don't sugar coat it tell what you really think) and I have heard "that will never work" on more than a single occasion. But you see in my mind I see something, although I might not even have found the right words to describe my entrepreneurial vision. But everyone else seems to see a rough and not particularly appealing crosscut length of timber (Every time it's timber, I know, I don't get it either) And they laugh when I tell them how I envision a fine ornate cabinet, and not just any cabinet, but one that will be unlike the others around now, other not only in its beauty, but more importantly in how it functions. Mine will be better just wait and see.
So I go back to the shop and pull out my number two pencil and think about the constructive feedback I have received. Where I might shave a bit off, I make notes of the kinds of fasteners I want. Slowly ideas form about what might make the thing sturdier, how to conserve without cheapening the result, and how this thing will fit into the larger space it will one day occupy. Then I see it taking some kind of shape and am eager to share that. So I take a break from operational design and build a website. I publish the site featuring a photograph of what's there showing a scotch taped sign on it that reads: FOR SALE (AS IS) Make an Offer:
You ever notice how nasty people people can be? I get messages something along the lines of : "That is a piece of crap, it doesn't even have doors on it! "You expect to sell that, huh" Or simply "Yeah, no thanks".
By now my friends have stopped returning my calls and I can't even get my mother to go to lunch with me. Alright I suppose I can see their point, they are tired of the late night power tools interfering with the Tonight Show. Mom just wants to park her new car in the family garage.
That one made you think, didn't it? (Just kidding I don't really live with my parents).
What the naysayers have not considered is that as I sell a few "pre-finished cabinets" or camping supplies whatever the case may be, I am raising capital for the next round. I am testing the market and getting feedback. By augmenting my product over time incrementally, I raise the potential value to be captured in the next iteration. Small improvements do accumulate over time. I have raised what others have referred to as an Empire in such a manner. When that happens it really flies in the faces of hecklers. Though kinder people have had the decency to admit that they just didn't see it at the time.
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