here's wishing you many many happy days in your new old workplace john all the best gav
--- On Thu, 4/3/10, John Carl <[email protected]> wrote: > From: John Carl <[email protected]> > Subject: [MD] New work, old work > To: [email protected] > Received: Thursday, 4 March, 2010, 4:48 PM > I went and applied for a job last > month, working on a new > permaculture-oriented farm, real close to where I > live. The interview took > place in a house that the owners were converting into a > business. I got the > job, partially based upon the fact that I built the house > and shop some 20 > years ago, when I was just starting out as a contractor. > > > This shop was my first contract, and one reason I got that > job way back > then, was I figured out an economic way to build a shop > with 18 foot > ceilings which nobody else wanted to take on. I made > this big scaffold > shaped like a sawhorse only 14 feet tall and then tacked > the 18 foot studs > to the scaffold plank temporarily and then after the top > plate was nailed > and the new wall braced, moved the ensemble on down the > line. It worked out > good and I got the big job of building the house a > year or so later and > then this job, like I mentioned, 20 years down the line. > > > You never know when good work is going to come back and > reward you. Part > of the remodeling into office space entails installing new > flooring, and > shelves in the closets, and everything is square and the > studs correctly > spaced. > > Yay me. > > Many times I used to debate quality issues with my old > partner. He read > ZAMM, most of the way through, and we'd talk about the > significance of > installing quality patterns into what you do. At the > time, the idea was to > be successful as a business. But as it turned out, > caring about the quality > of your work isn't that conducive to building up a good > construction > business. Business runs on profit and > profit comes from skimping, hiring > illegal aliens to work cheap while buying flashy-looking > equipment that > looks impressive to intimidate your clients into signing; > taking shortcuts > and cheating. > > I have a lot of contempt for the majority of practitioners > of my chosen > profession. > > My partner and I split up in '94. I broke my ankle > and took a web-design > class and tried a different career path for a while, just > to see. When I > went back into it, tired of sitting on my butt in front of > a computer > screen, I worked for other contractors mostly. > > My dream was to one day have a shop like that first one I > built. Something > big enough to swing logs around in, and work on just about > anything. The > shop also had an apartment adjoining and I always thought > that'd be the > perfect home - about 1200 square feet of living space > adjoined to 2400 > square feet of shopspace. Man heaven. > > And here I am, working in it now, I've got it mostly to > myself. The bread > cast on the waters has come back to me after many days. > > Quality doesn't guarantee success in business, but in > life. > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org/md/archives.html > Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
