Question of the month: hard decisions
April 4, 2009 by Cyndi Lavin
Filed under Question of the Month
Question of the month: What has been your hardest decision?
What has been your toughest call? Are you pleased with how things have turned out? Did you second guess yourself for awhile after making the choice?
As it relates to jewelry, I’d have to say that my toughest decision was to be extremely selective in the commissions I accepted. There was a temptation in early days to be so grateful to anyone who asked me to make something custom for them. After getting burned a few times though, I learned to be much more selective.
It is always alright to say no, but it’s hard to do. “No, I don’t think I could work with someone like you” doesn’t come off as very nice! But that’s often the honest truth. I’ve learned that if someone comes to me because they love my style and the things I make, and they have some general ideas about what they want, we’re most likely going to get along just fine. However, if someone wants to micro-manage the process…well, not so much.
Guess I’m just a typical tempermental artist that way! Give me the guidelines and then get the heck out of my way!
The hardest thing for me since I retired is to not overcommit myself. I really want to do it all, but I finally came to the conclusion that it’s impossible. I am becoming more selective in the projects I choose to do. I rarely do commission work. It’s just not satisfying to me. I would rather put my time into projects like Beading For A Cure, Pink Artist and such.
Good point Arline! As long as you’re a person with a reasonable number of interests, you’re never going to be able to do everything that interests you. Some things just have to drop off the list, I guess
I had originally gone to university for programming, but couldn’t handle the workload and didn’t have a lot of resources at my disposal to do homework effectively. I switched into a Math major, graduated only to realize that it was more education to become an actuary of any other discipline that actually used the math I knew, unless I wanted to teach. I didn’t.
My toughest call was choosing to go back to school only a year or so after finishing paying off my original student loans. I had little in terms of money saved, it was a huge risk to go back to school when you knew you could end up with better qualifications but still no job and have to pay student loans again. At the same time, staying where I was, being paid little for what I knew and underappreciated besides was a poor quality of life for someone who was 31 and had hoped for so much more.
It worked out fine in the beginning. I was near the top of my class with the drive and determination to stay there. While the dot com bust and then attacks of September 11, 2001 caused a major meltdown in IT jobs, I graduated into a barren landscape. Another year, more credit debt as I struggled to live on seasonal and contract work.
Then I landed my current programming job and within two years, my salary matched and then exceeded my debts and very frugal expenses.
Now it is enough to pay my way plus let me buy jewelry supplies. That has also started to become profitable on a day to day basis. I’m sure the day will come when my investment is entire returned and it is entirely self-supporting for the part-time work that it is.
Good for you for taking that risk, Paul! It’s always so difficult to go for the delayed gratification of seeking more education, more training, more knowledge, and the real problem is that it doesn’t *always* pay off. It used to, but now it’s more of a crap shoot. Still, I’m an optimist when it comes to education: no one can take that experience or degree away from you once you’ve got it. I’m so glad that it’s worked out well for you. And the lessons that you learned about frugal living are part of that education. Way too many of us live too high for our own good, and it’s good to be able to really value what we’ve got and be grateful for it.
I bootstrapped my business too, out of a previous business which I started for under $200 back in the day. We didn’t have any money for art back then