Making Ripples: post-corporate adventures in Floyd County Virginia

Working and blogging - a precarious balance...

When I am working on something challenging, it's not always easy to find time to write about it and writing about it more than a few times just might bore my audience.

When we were building our house here in the country and getting acclimatized to life in a small rural community, life moved at a pace that encouraged contemplation and blogging.

Writing still continued when starting up Floyd Custom Framing  because there was time in which I could collect my thoughts and share what seemed interesting.

But recently this custom framing business has taken on a life of its own and I feel like a rodeo rider who is trying to stay on top and not get trampled underfoot.

I have one hand on the business and the other free hand reaching for information to keep me ahead of the new technical challenges I encounter every week. There is no other hand that I can use to write all of this down for posterity.

The few moments I have free get spent visiting online forums for members of the custom picture framing community.

I feel that this may be the wave of the future where self-employed business owners work in home-based shops but mingle daily on the Internet with practitioners of the same art to share problems and solutions that friends and family can may not appreciate or be able to contribute to.

When it is time to deliver completed products, I finally get to leave the shop and visit customers and share a quick coffee break at the Cafe Del Sol with other self-employed business owners.

But there is hope for change. I have found someone competent who has been helping me organize the framing business and with luck, we will bring it to the next level where we have a retail location in downtown Floyd, here in Floyd County, Virginia.

That will open whole new areas of opportunities and problems to solve, so I will have no end of things to write about. I just hope that I will be able to find the time...

Are any of you experiencing this same challenge? Plenty to write about, but no time to write?

Life in the slow lane is a mirage...

This is a cautionary tale for those seeking rest and quiet after "retirement".

You are feeling burnt out by years on the road or in meetings and you want to settle down

You find a suitably remote village with enough modern conveniences to make life comfortable, a mix of interesting people who treat strangers kindly, and enough community spirit to show that life is good and can get better and you think you have found heaven on earth...

Hah! You have no idea what is waiting for you!

You spend the first months or even a year puttering around town drinking coffee in the mornings at the local gathering spots. You attend potluck dinners, house concerts, and other local events. Perhaps you find a church you like and join that.

You get to know people who have as much or more talent than you do and you start to understand the things that are needed and wanted to make the community an even better place to live in.

You volunteer and help out in some area where your expertise can really make a difference and you are pleasantly surprised by the favorable reaction you get. You volunteer on another project or two and you find that there are a core of dedicated people who have been working long and hard to make the community what it is today.

You realize that these are the people whose opinions matter to you and you volunteer for a few more projects because you really enjoy working with people who have positive goals and who are dedicated as any professional in the business world you came from.

You find more of these dedicated people and join them in worthwhile projects. You feel good about your contributions and feel a growing sense of purpose because you are working shoulder to shoulder with people who you respect and can rely on.

You eventually discover a few nay-sayers who criticise everything you do, but the dedicated movers and shakers on the local scene let you know that these grumblers have been voicing the same garbage since long before you arrived. This puts the criticism into proper perspective and you keep on doing what seems right.

You learn more about the community and its needs and you find yourself involved in supporting more worthwhile activities than you can imagine.

Your personal activities like blogging, or painting, or generating income start to get pushed out of the picture while you work to meet community-oriented deadlines that you have signed up for.

You don't even have time for morning coffee at the local gathering spots!

If you are experiencing this, take another look at your purposes in life before your friends and family have to intervene. A 24 x 7 workload is not good for living things, whether in the city or out in the country.

This situation is very real to me, as I am in the midst of gently extricating myself from some of this community-related activity. The activity is all worthwhile, but I need to find a better balance between personal needs and external needs. It's not easy.

The joys of working at home

We are finally experiencing a decent snowstorm. The schools are closed. Many roads are impassable except for 4WD drive vehicles and even those proceed with great caution.

Those of us who commute on foot with a coffee cup in hand can still make it to work handily.

All over Floyd County there are artisans and other self-employed business people who are out in their workshops and studios turning out products. The radio is on and the stove is keeping the place toasty while work is being done.

The phone is ringing, of course, with people rescheduling appointments and reporting accidents, but in most cases work goes on. It is a comforting feeling to be able to get production done, even under adverse conditions.

We are just beginning to get the snow that other parts of the country have had for months. Right now, the snow is still falling so I will probably wait to do any shoveling.

I am looking forward to seeing how well my little tractor performs in this snow. I think it's too small to be useful as a snow plow, but I hope it can drag its trailer loaded with firewood through several inches of snow. If it won't handle this winter weather, I am in for some real exercise.

Update: It seems to handle snow very well. Chains and a rear weight give it sufficient traction. Steering is problematical because the front wheels slide if they are turned sharply.

UPDATE: For those of you who don't have to work at all. Here is your mascot for today.

A cold start for 2008

We are starting to get some winter weather. Days of freezing temperatures make it difficult to work outside for very long.

I put chains and extra weights on the little tractor and was painfully aware that I should have done the task earlier. Once snow falls, the tractor is useless unless it has chains and enough weight to give it traction.

We alternate between splitting firewood and pushing ahead on projects that can be done inside.

My latest custom framing project is a surprise for some artisan friends who do a lot to encourage creativity in the artistic community in Floyd. It is a collage of images I've captured over the last few years.

It was an interesting challenge to create openings in the form of pottery shapes, but with the computer controlled mat cutter, the actual cutting was a matter of minutes, rather than an all day project.

I want to explore making more ways to incorporate themes in custom frames. The industry is constantly changing because it is driven by lifestyle changes. The traditional picture frame is evolving and it is hard to predict what will happen in the next few years.

I am attending the West Coast Art & Frame Show in Las Vegas later this month to see what is happening elsewhere and to pick up design ideas from the experts in this field. It promises to be interesting.

Happy Holidays!

As Gretchen and I end this sixth year of our post corporate careers, we have a lot to be thankful for and even more to look forward to.

Thanks to all who have encouraged us in so many ways. Thanks to those who have found our work meaningful and have purchased products and services from us.

Your support and encouragement have enabled us to realize goals that were only distant dreams for many years.

The dream of supporting ourselves as a family after corporate life by writing, creating art, and through craftsmanship and design ability has become a reality and we can see that it offers opportunity for years to come.

We all go through phases in life and it is reassuring to know that there is a viable future after corporate life.

For us it was not retirement, although that possibility exists for those who plan well for it. Our plans called for active engagement in the community and for income-producing work.

On both counts, we were able to find activities that met every expectation and connected us to people in our community who have become good friends.

We wish you all a happy holiday season and the chance to find opportunities to enhance your lives and find meaningful ways to share your talents with others.

May you flourish and prosper.
The world needs more of that.

The kind of occupation I've always dreamed of...

Doing custom framing for artists and photographers to achieve a superior presentation for their art is one of the most rewarding activities I can think of.

To work with a photographer and to come up with a unique presentation which honors the intention of the original photograph is a challenge which offers many rewards.

This photo by Jeri Rogers could have been framed in a dozen different ways, but this frame and mat created an unforgettable impression that seemed right for the particular purpose. You can visit Jeri's website to see more of her fine work.

Whether art is produced by a professional or by a child, it can be given a unique and memorable presentation by respecting the intention that went into creating the artwork.

I find that there always seems to be a way to achieve the results intended if I keep looking for affordable alternatives if our first choices exceed the budget available.

There is as much satisfaction in achieving an affordable result as there is in spending top dollar to get a specific result.

Believe it or not, well designed framing solutions can produce a "wow" reaction with a wide range of mouldings and mats. When the final result is also affordable, it makes everyone happy.

This horse painting in Valentin Soto's El Charro restaurant in downtown Floyd adds the right touch of elegance to this popular dining spot. The painting came to me as a loose piece of canvas rolled up in paper.  Valentin had a vision of what he wanted and I was able to produce the result that you see here. Now you can admire Valentin's horse while you enjoy the tasty food at El Charro.

Like almost every other kind of design activity, affordable results encourage continuing customer interest.  That is a direction worth following, especially in Floyd County, Virginia where you will find me working in my shop almost every day of the week.

Finding people who need and appreciate pearls

I have been incredibly fortunate to have discovered custom framing, an occupation that lets me create wow products for extremely appreciative audiences.

I get to work with customers and help them choose a framing system that complements and enhances their cherished works of art. The end result is far more meaningful than I ever expected. The final product is esthetically pleasing and emotionally satisfying for all concerned.

We all take a win on the final result.

The dynamics of this process are unlike any client relationship I have encountered before. I find it to be personally challenging as it calls upon every bit of design skill that I have learned. It is also mutually enjoyable for both the client and myself because each custom framing job involves working out an optimum solution to a complex problem with hundreds of alternative choices.

Occasionally a client will give me a work of art and ask me to frame it using my own judgment, but I prefer working with them so they can experience the creative thrill that comes from discovering the exact effects they are trying to achieve.

Combining colors and textures of mats and matching them to one of hundreds of moulding choices produces continuing surprises. When customers see what is available, they almost never adopt a cookie cutter approach of saying, "I'll take a white mat in a black frame."

Instead, we go at the challenge by finding a mat combination that brings out what they want in a work of art. Then we find a moulding that encloses the whole in a way that creates a sense of balance and completeness.

But, it doesn't end there! This is an iterative activity as most design processes are. We will reach a combination that pleases, then one of us will pick up another mat or moulding and say, "What if..." and we are off on a new path of discovery.

The process invariably ends when we all say, "Wow! Look at that!". This happens when the combination of art and framing elements coalesce into a harmonious whole that produces an emotional effect.

In essence, I act as a facilitator and make it possible for clients to achieve as much creative freedom as they desire.

This works whether the art is created by a professional or by a child. When it all comes together, we experience an emotional surge. We have created something together and the experience  becomes a bright spot in our memory.

As in all things, making it happen requires skills that I have been acquiring for many years. I am really happy to be in this place and time with so many people who love and appreciate art and are willing to preserve it.

This is work that I truly enjoy and I work with clients for whom I have a great deal of affinity.
It is for me the best of all possible career choices at this point in my life.

I am here because I finally learned the lessons I discussed in my previous article.

Be careful what you wish for - part 2

I never intended to let Making Ripples slip into a weekly blogging schedule, but the pace around here has me feeling like I have somehow slid into an alternative universe where time has smoothly accelerated to 3X normal speed and my mind is still struggling to absorb 1.5X.

It is especially remarkable because this rush of experiences seems to be all good stuff.

My new custom framing business is going like gangbusters, Gretchen is seeing increased demand for her paintings, and it looks like there will be a Russian Edition of Danger Quicksand in the near future.

It reminds me of the Edgar Guest poem about Ketchup:

You shake and shake the Ketchup bottle,
none will come and then a lot'l

I am bemused at all the good news that is coming at us in a wonderfully overwhelming rush when we have not visibly changed our fundamental basis of operation.

It may be just the usual physical universe lag between working away to create something and seeing the results.  Just about the time you start to wonder if anything is happening, things start to move and almost seem to pick up speed on their own.

Freight trains exhibit this behavior. For example, you will hear a lot of rumbling and clanking from the engine before all of the coupling slack is taken up and the entire train start to move.

In our case, I feel that it may be time to apply a new set of rules to guide us so that we don't buried as a result of our recent successes. It will be an interesting challenge to see if we can handle the new demands on our time without undoing the actions that produced these desirable results.

I think that as long as we put people and relationships first, we will remain on the right track.

Stay tuned to see whether we can turn this burst of opportunities into a steady and continuing revenue stream. It should be quite an adventure.

Meanwhile, I will do my best to find time to write about what is happening.

Be very careful what you wish for..

Once upon a time, I had this dream of a home in the country with a bright, spacious, workshop with all of the tools I would need to design and produce wonderful things that clients might need. I would spend my days working on new designs for clients and would enjoy country life to the fullest.

In this dream, I envisioned that Gretchen would have her own studio where she could paint and she would spend her days creating art and working with other artists on group projects.

While I fully expected this to happen, I didn't take into account the multiplier effect that occurs when other people think you have a reasonably good idea and helpfully pile on by sending you business and getting you involved in all sorts of other activities.

I am working seven days a week to keep up with demand in my new custom framing business and Gretchen is driving to and fro like a soccer mom to exhibit her work and to staff the gallery she created with 5 other artists.

We smile wistfully at each other over breakfast and promise to get together real soon for a glass of wine on the back deck...when things slow down a bit. Then a hug, a quick smooch, and tires are spinning on the gravel driveway as we sprint off in separate directions to keep our new enterprises and our new commitments from toppling over on us.

We are happy with what we have created. It is just that thanks to our many friends, we have more on our plates at this moment than we planned for.

We will prevail and may even get organized.
A special thanks to all who have helped.

Tune in later for more posts on this subject.

Life-changing moments...revisited

(I wrote this in 2005 and it still applies today, so I wanted to share it with those of you who missed it the first time and are hung up in doubt about a new opportunity.)

When the door to a new business opportunity opens, some fortunate people seem to step through it easily and pick up a new life on the other side.

Others agonize, trapped by indecision and self-doubts, until the door of opportunity closes on them again.

Still others exultantly throw the door open and embrace their new challenge, only to find that their nearest and dearest are hanging back in disgust or dismay. They hear:

    "You didn't say we were going to live ___________!"

    Fill in the blanks with your choice of: in Detroit... on Penobscot Bay...on a tramp steamer...so far away from mother.

Others find that long-awaited opportunities present themselves at inconvenient times: they just got promoted, the children are in a new school, they just met the person who is right for them, etc.

If you find yourself in the last three groups, your life is far more stressful than it needs to be, but there is a possibility that you might be able to do something about it.

First of all, you need to recognize that opportunity means change. If comfort is important to you, your choices of new opportunities are severely limited. A lot of people grumble about their jobs, marriages, and living quarters, but find any number of excuses to avoid changing any of them.

Life is all about recognizing the need to make changes and then making them. When you are part of a family group, it is wise to bring the rest of the group into the decision-making process. If your family does not support the changes needed to take advantage of a much-needed opportunity, you need to re-examine your priorities or the family's priorities. In either case, you may have some hard decisions to make.

The people who find opportunities on every hand are those who keep themselves open to new opportunities. They don't wish for opportunities, they create a mood that anticipates opportunity by remaining open-minded and ensuring that pursuit of opportunity is welcomed by their family group.

When children are raised in an environment where self-employment is well-understood and is respected, they also learn a wealth of information about discovery of business opportunities.

Developing a plan to improve your live and the life of your family is not a one-shot deal. Get everyone involved and things will either go far more smoothly, or you will discover what sources of counter-intention exist in your family. Either way, you will be closer to a resolution than before.

If you keep looking for life-changing moments that never seem to appear, try examining your readiness to accept change. When you are actually ready for a change to occur in your life, it is almost as though the universe seems to get it, and your opportunity appears.

Hope you have some pleasant life-changing moments this week.

Creating a job that satisfies...

While many job applicants are looking for the employment opportunity that will "light their fire", there are a growing number of entrepreneurs who have discovered that they can "light their own fire."

First of all, have you ever written down what it is that really "turns you on" in terms of work? We are talking professional opportunity here, economic opportunity, a chance to serve mankind and make a few bucks while you do that.

If you really take a hard look at this area, you might just discover what it is that reeeally gives you job satisfaction! It might just change your life.

The biggest trap you can fall into is to take a job only because it pays well. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions that weren't thought out very well. That high-paying job may involve dealing in products and services that will suck you down the rathole of compromising your integrity. If you are dealing with good people and delivering ethical products and services, the job satisfaction you get will mean as much as the money you make.

I wrote about ideal jobs some time ago and it generated interesting responses from some very talented people. What I didn't consider at the time was that it is possible to create a ideal job opportunity on your own! An ideal job is one which offers you a chance of living a more meaningful life and supporting your family at the same time.

In the last few years, I have had the opportunity to create several rewarding job opportunities. In the process, I have found some elements that were common to all of them.

These are some of the things that make a job satisfying for me. Your list will differ, I am sure.

Delivering a product or service that customers are excited about

Creating a product or service where aesthetic considerations are as important as strictly functional considerations.

Having a chance to develop the business from scratch

Breaking new ground in terms of developing a business model or a new approach to marketing and selling products or services

Creating a product or service that requires high quality workmanship or a high level of professional skill or both.

Working with highly motivated people in an environment with a minimum of hidden agendas

Having/creating a working environment with a rational mechanism for engaging with and disengaging from business relationships.

Working out a series of products and services that people want and are willing to pay for.

I am sure that you, with a few moments reflection, can add many more items to this list to describe an ideal job situation for yourself.

In the near future when many more of us will be self-employed, a technique for analyzing and developing satisfying work will become a universally necessity.

Perhaps you could start developing your list now, if you haven't already done so.

Barriers to unlocking your talent

Gretchen and I received a warm welcome at the Jessie Peterman Library in Floyd last night when we discussed the factors involved in "Unlocking Your Talent".

Some interesting discussions ensued when we got into one of the more subtle barriers that can cause you to stifle your creative impulses and keep your talent under wraps.

I mentioned that being employed in a high-paying job has caused people to stifle creative activity because it causes the boss to consider them less "promotable". No employee wants to jeopardize their income stream unnecessarily.

Even when there are no explicit warnings, there is an attitude on the part of some managers that artistic pursuits or even blogging are suspect activities.

After our presentation, one member of the audience said that she had experienced this same management attitude even though she had not been in a high paying job at all.

It was also observed that there are times in our lives when we forego new creative activities in order to care for children or to complete a work or study assignment. These periods can last for years, but the consensus was that in this case, the creative activity was merely on hold, not being stifled. Once the barrier was lifted, creative activity resumed and hidden talents bloomed.

The topic of unlocking talent is a popular one in this creative community. Some of the attendees were still discussing the topic today. Perhaps we can organize a workshop at some future time for those who would like to achieve specific results.

21st Century Sweatshop

In the 21st century, you can easily put in a grueling 10 hour work day without ever leaving your home. Sometimes the biggest problem is pacing yourself. You can get involved in solving a knotty design problem and work non-stop for hours on end. Interruptions are few and they come mostly from four-footed members of the family who are checking if its time to be fed again.

The availability of fresh air and sunshine does wonders for my peace of mind and my morale. Under these conditions I am able to produce more work for my clients now than I ever could in a cubicle farm or even in my own private corporate office.

At the same time, I can find time to have coffee with friends or clients on a moments notice, if I want to.

I make sure that I spend at least 20% of my time marketing my services or thinking up new services to exchange for income. The absence of forced commuting gives me two to three hours of extra time every day for work, study or relaxation.

As a self-employed entrepreneur, I have no corporate safety net, no corporate insurance, but I don't have layers of inert or timid management to placate either.

When I was employed, even though I considered myself a top performer in my particular area, I worried constantly about corporate changes that would result in loss of income. The biggest discovery on leaving the corporate world was realizing how illusory the corporate safety actually was.

Reinventing ourselves - part 4 in a series

Reinventing ourselves is an ongoing process. There is no rest point in a career or in life where we can stop performing and just coast.

To paraphrase something I said much, much earlier:

Work is like that rock, paper, scissors game. There is no long-term winning play. We need to stay alert and look for the strategy that will allow us to produce results for our company, customers or clients and get well-rewarded for it.

Situations change over time, so we must be ready for the next shift if we are to continue successfully.

A year ago I wrote several posts on reinventing yourself:

Why reinvent yourself?
What kind of reinvention will make sense for you?
When your "business plan" for life runs out of gas.

They still make sense and I continue to practice what I write. I am still reinventing myself in an effort to be more effective at the things I consider important in life.

My long term goal is to make a significant contribution to sustainable economic development in this area of Virginia. As I see it, I will do that best by enabling  business people and artisans in this region to develop viable business models and thereby support their families and contribute to the economy of Southwestern Virginia.

I had hoped to achieve a part of this goal in the capacity of Executive Director of the Jacksonville Center of Floyd. I committed to manage the operation of the Center and the Board was to do fund raising.

Unfortunately, lack of fund raising efforts have made it necessary to cut back on staff hours and while I was donating 25 hours a week of my time to the Center, I can not donate the full 45 hours that I spend at the Center each week.

I may appear to the untrained eye as someone who is "retired", but the actuality is that I need to contine generating income for the forseeable future. So I will continue to support the center as a volunteer photographer and advisor, but not as a staff member.

For me at this time, reinvention is finding those who need help in promoting their businesses and helping them get the word out effectively and economically. My preference is to service clients who are committed to preserving the quality of life in Floyd County.

My other major interest is to track and make use of the developing role of Internet publishing platforms as a vehicle for disseminating ideas and generating income for writers and artists of all kinds.

These two areas of activity should keep me busy and out of trouble for some time.

What makes a dream job situation?

In my opinion, the major factor is being able to make a difference! It is the basis of real job satisfaction.

That phrase, "being able to make a difference" rarely appeared on the job descriptions I have seen and when it did appear, it was used as motivation when pay was less than stellar. Nonetheless, making a difference is what excites people who take responsibility for others and for their own lives.

When you can actually make a difference in people's lives by doing your job, you will often endure lousy pay and indifferent management for years before realizing that you can make a difference and make a living wage somewhere else!

Making a difference in other people lives also implies that the people you help are able to acknowledge your efforts to help them. Somehow, this acknowledgement is far more important than being recognized by the people who employ you.

I think that everyone has the capability to find their dream job as long as they understand what is involved and that exchange is necessary to sustain yourself in any position.

There is lot that I could write about dream jobs and nightmare job situations, but the basic requirements for a dream job are:

1. The job itself must have a worthwhile purpose
2. Other people should benefit from your work
3. You should be recognized, not reviled, for doing what is necessary
4. There should be ample financial rewards to allow you to continue this job indefinitely.

Any one of these being omitted can make for a untenable job situation. For example, the job af an elected official can fall short of perfection in several significant ways. Being President of the United States is as close to a nightmare job as I can imagine, because number 3 is almost always out.

Being micro-managed or second-guessed will turn almost any job into an unwelcome ordeal. When this increases to the point where it interferes with your ability to make a difference, you need to determine what actions lead to the greater good.

The important thing to remember is that you always have a choice. You signed up to help people. Are you still able to do so? If not, what can you do to make better use of your time?

For me, that always meant finding a situation where I could make a difference and support my family in the process. There are countless opportunities to do this. All one needs to do is look.

The wording of goals is quite important

When you think of a goal as a tool for focusing your intention, you will understand why the wording of a goal might be so important.

If your goal is stated as an objective to be reached, what happens then? You will discover, as I have, that striving to achieve a goal is an adventure of the highest order and extremely absorbing. Reaching a goal on the other hand is a short-lived pleasure and it has little staying power.

If your goal is to achieve an ability, on the other hand, it's like you have given yourself another tool to improve your life. There is adventure while you are achieving the goal and there is continual satisfaction as you exercise your new ability.

This is not idle conjecturing. I have been working with misworded goals for some time. How do I know? Because reaching the goal provided little or no satisfaction!

There is a goal that I have been working on for many years with little lasting success. It is the goal of achieving and maintaining an orderly workspace.

I think I discovered today why I cannot seem to accomplish this task which is easily achieved by so many others. I am using the wrong wording for the goal.

If I stop and think about it carefully, I do not WANT a totally neat workspace or desktop!

What I want is a workspace that will let me efficiently handle a wide range of activities at high and low volumes without loss of control.

Now THAT is a goal that stirs my imagination!

This kind of workspace design is an open-ended challenge as it must provide for expansion and contraction of workflow and rapid access to records. I am sure there are historical precedents that can be simulated with modern technology so that I do not need a large staff to fetch and file documents.

I do not need to belabor this further. I think you probably get the idea and I have some work to do on creating workspaces that fit this new goal. I will report later on what results I achieve. It shouldl be interesting.

Then and Now

A few years ago we began to tire of endless daily meetings, high density living conditions, and 2 hour commutes and decided to leave Silicon Valley and head East, me hoping to begin a post corporate career as a writer/woodworker and Gretchen to continue her corporate career as
a telecommuting Senior Project Manager.
For us, the party was definitely over.

We held our final yard sale, and disposed of car, furniture and exercise equipment. Then we took one last look down our long street of tiny houses with tiny yards and drove across America to a new future.

We settled in an idyllic lakeside community called Lake Monticello, a few miles away from Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.

We enjoyed the peace and quiet after San Jose, but decided after a few years that we weren't cut out for the idyllic life in a gated community.

I fed the deer, which was against the rules, and worked in my workshop at all hours of the day and night, which was also against the rules. I wanted to build a bigger workshop, but that would have also been against...well, you get the idea.

Nice neighbors, friendly kids, but a development that started as a rustic retirement dream was morphing into a neatly groomed suburban bedroom community like the ones you find outside almost every city of any size.

Except for the size of the yards, it was beginning to feel like our old neighborhood shown in the second picture above.

We decided we were done with bedroom communities and we went exploring to find a place with plenty of landscape and industrial strength high speed Internet connections. We found what we wanted in Southwest Virginia.

This is not everyone's cup of tea, which is fortunate, as this unique and colorful county would otherwise be overrun with new settlers. This particular area has great scenery, lots of local talent but only a handful of job openings, so it is wise to bring your own business, preferably one that brings money into the county from the world outside.

This is an ideal place to live if you do business over the Internet. If you are a writer, or a CEO of a virtual corporation, or a knowledge worker, you have instant access to everywhere and you can watch cows while you have morning coffee on your deck.

If you are up to the rigors of country living, you can have the best of both worlds. You have daily access at the local coffee shops to people with fresh ideas and lots of business savvy, while through the Internet you stay connected to your old business partners and clients.

Country living means wells and septic fields and emergency generators and woodpiles and all sorts of things you do not concern yourself with when you live in a city. You keep your pets inside at night so they don't get eaten by coyotes.

It also gets dark at night as there are no street lamps and your nearest neighbor may be a mile away. This shot was taken just after sundown and I captured the moon and the last rays of the day.

The beauty and the isolation are acquired tastes and not for everyone. Some new settlers stay only a few months and find they miss the press of humanity and the all-night deli's. We find the quiet space around us gives us more time for creating.

We found this to be kind of community where there are a lot of  opportunities to serve the community in some capacity plus there is ready access to professional training in the arts.

We have seen new settlers dive immediately into service work such as rescuing animals from being put down or joining Amateur Radio Emergency Services. Gretchen and I became involved in the arts and in the local library association.

Many of the people we know have farms and a job or a career as an artisan. These are not gentlemen farmers as they raise food for their families, but manage to be contractors or musicians or painters as well, or potters, or woodworkers, or even teachers. It is not unusual to meet someone who has four jobs, so you soon get the idea that this is an area where personal industry is recognized and rewarded.

The net result for us is that we are probably working longer at more challenging tasks than when we were "employed" but we have more freedom and more opportunity for self-expression than ever before.

This last may be a result of the fact that when you are surrounded by self-employed and self-motivated people, there is this tremendous synergy which results in you getting inspired to explore new ideas and new business opportunities every day.

We do not yet have a significant base of industry for economic development of the conventional kind, but we may be reaching the tipping point as far as having enough talent in the area to achieve critical mass for a creative economy, which is the business of making money from ideas.

The Power of a Dream

When a number of people are seized by the power of an idea, it creates a series of pivotal incidents which change history. If the idea is creative and leads to freedom and prosperity, it can become an unstoppable force.

If you would like to give yourself a lift, try looking back at those unexpected moments in time when an idea transformed your life and gave it new meaning. I ran into something this year that will alter the economy of this region and will provide opportunities for new businesses. It is 'Round the Mountain: Southwest Virginia's Artisan Network.

Thirteen years ago, Becky Anderson conceived the idea that nurturing Western North Carolina's craft culture would be a more viable economic strategy than trying to entice outside industry to build plants in the region. She created Handmade in America to accomplish that goal and it is transforming the region.

Two years ago, Todd Christensen of Virginia's Department of Housing and Community Development, and Joe Wilson, Executive Director of the National Council for the Traditional Arts, came up with the idea of creating an Artisan Network for Southwest Virginia, following the lines of The Crooked Road, Virginia's Heritage Music Trail, and building on the experience of Handmade in Amarica.

In in June of this year , Gretchen and I attended a Creating A New Economy Conference in Abingdon at the invitation of Woody Crenshaw. The conference was hosted by The Crooked Road and 'Round the Mountain.

It was immediately evident to us that 240 artisans, musicians, government leaders and tourism executives were hot on the trail of a grand dream for revitalizing Southwest Virginia through use of its greatest assets.

I was struck by the passion exhibited by Governor Kaine, Congressman Boucher and various government agency speakers for the dream of sustainable economic development for this region of Virginia. I was also impressed with the dedication exhibited by Woody Crenshaw, Todd Christensen,  Joe Wilson and the Board of 'Round the Mountain. The dream of creating sustainable economic development by utilizing the cultural assets of this region really took hold of my imagination.

That dream is growing stronger every day. Recently, we attended a two-day meeting at Hungry Mother State Park in Virginia where more than 40 people grappled with the details and challenges of managing the forward momentum of 'Round the Mountain, while creating policies and expanding the team which is going to achieve the targets which lie immediately ahead.

RTM has an enormous task of establishing a network of driving trails throughout the region to connect artisan studios, craft venues, agricultural tourism related venues and other creative points of interest with the general public.

These trails will be developed in cooperation with local communities and county governments and will be promoted by RTM to bring visitors into the region to experience the culture and traditions of Southwest Virginia.

The dream embraces the development of an artisan registry covering 19 counties in Southwest Virginia, working with the SW Virginia Artisan Center in Abingdon, VA. and developing an interactive website and much, much more. RTM has been flying slightly below the radar until this year, but it should become visible to everyone in Virginia in the very near future.

Invitations to join RTM have recently been sent out to artisans and registrations are begining to come in. In a relatively short time, the 'Round the Mountain network will consist of thousands of individuals, instead of hundreds, and the economic effects will begin to permeate all of Southwest Virginia.

This is a dream where everyone has a part to play and benefits accrue to the participants in proportion to their contribution. It is a dream worth investigating.

Late-life Artists - Transforming Life Experience Into Art

I see an increasing number of professionals who find themselves transforming their life experiences into art. Many of these mid and late-life artists were launched into art by taking a course taught by a professional artist, while others simply find themselves caught up by late-onset creativity.

Whatever the reason, these late-life artists are playing an important part in Floyd. In fact, the majority of students at the residential craft school at the Jacksonville Center in Floyd are grey-haired veterans of life and industry.

A little background for those who are not familiar with the Center: The Jacksonville Center offers a wide range of classes from pastels and watercolors to pottery, glassworking and blacksmithing to students of all ages. The students range from beginning artists and craftworkers to well-known professionals who are cross-training in other disciplines. The cooperative interaction (synergy) between students at different levels is one of many benefits of these classes.

I think the reasons we find so many late-life artists emerging is that "Art" is not an easy way for a young person to make a living . Many young people, myself included, investigated making a living as artists and concluded reluctantly that we were not able to support a family with art although we could do so as engineers, salespersons or business managers. Some artists were making a good living, but I concluded that I did not have the skill or connections to succeed at that time.

Many of us made our choices to work at careers which enabled us to support our families, but once we reached an age where we had no corporate responsibilities, we could reignite our passions for creative work and explore new opportunities as craft workers and artists.

This delayed entrance into the world of art is not necessarily a disadvantage. Unlike ballet, where you are too old at 13 to entertain thoughts of a career, a career in painting can be launched at the age of 79 (Grandma Moses).

Art can be considered a communication where the artist evokes a response in the observer. Artists with a great deal of interesting life experience only need to learn to translate that life experience into a recognizable communication and they will generally find a ready audience.

Late-life artists may even have a certain advantage over young artists. At the same level of technical skill, the older artist has more to communicate about that will resonate with potential buyers.

This also applies to writers, as best-selling author Barbara Kingsolver recently commented:

Learn everything you can about the world. ... Having something to say is more important than trying to guess what people want to hear. ... Live long enough to have something wise to say.

Many thanks to Colleen Redman for capturing Barbara's comment.

I have a backlog of interviews I have done with late-life artists and crafters and will be posting them here in the next few days. Their stories are both fascinating and inspiring. I think you will find them thought-provoking also.

Stay tuned...

Tag: late-life artists

So much to blog about...so little time to blog

During my years of life in big corporations, I was constantly seeking projects that would give meaning to my life. For many years, I considered myself successful in that regard.

The challenge of creating new computers, new ways of solving problems, and new products to improve life as we knew it kept leading me on for more years than I care to admit, before I realized that creative endeavors in a large organization required more political knowhow than creativity.

The plain facts of the matter was that I found most of my personal satisfaction in the activities I did outside of work. Work provided a livelihood and a professional reputation while my outside activities became the focus of much of my adult life.

When I was laid off from Sun Microsystems in 2001, it was a wake up call and an opportunity to put into practice every idea I'd had about creating a career that gave real meaning to my life.

As we all know, you have to be careful what you wish for...

There is always a price for striking out in a new direction

One of the first things you learn about doing something new is that there are some people who will disapprove of the way you are doing it. These are "yesterday's experts" who are threatened by the changes that you represent.

My good friend Fred First, bemoans the fact that a literary magazine and a book fair have recently turned him down because his excellent book was not produced by a "reputable publisher".

It makes me want to whack him up the side of his head because he still doesn't get the fact that his work is valuable because of what he has written, not because of his publisher.

He seems to think that a "reputable" publisher's name on a book is an imprimatur that means something to prospective book buyers. It only matters to literary critics and they don't buy books!

Publishing houses do not set standards. They are desperately trying to defend their existing markets from incursions by self-published upstarts.

All is well...

I was driving back to work last night and pulled off the road to take this picture. It captured the concept for me that there is beauty in all things if we can only take a few moments to enjoy them.

It also suggests that the end of a day or of a career is the beginning of a new day or a new career elsewhere. We just need to keep our eyes and minds open for the next opportunity to serve elsewhere.

I have more work to do than I ever imagined. I have a great team to work with and I find more creative people in my environment every day.

I am continually inspired by the concept of sustainable economic development. It is an economic idea whose time has come. It embraces the Luddites in our county and the cutting-edge geeks who see that life does not have to be sacrificed for speed. It also embraces those who seek to farm in ways that enhance the land instead of depleting it.

Instinctively, we all realize at some level that we need to find a way to keep this county green and develop a lifestyle that allows our best and brightest children to build a satisfying and prosperous life here instead of leaving for better opportunities in less harmonious places.

We have an abundance of creative and public-spirited people living in this county and a number of programs in place which can open the door to new economic realities.

I feel very fortunate to have arrived at such a propitious time. It feels very much like there is an convergence of activities and people which is going to transform Floyd in some significant way.

Our biggest task will be to channel the transformation in a way that gives us new economic opportunities while preserving those qualities which make Floyd so desirable.

Career success in a nutshell

Someone asked me recently if I could sum up my latest career in a single sentence.

I am finally in a position where my responsibilities align with what I enjoy doing most, enabling creative people to do better in life.

It has been a long journey with many detours before I finally arrived at a point where I was ready for this position.

I started my career with the viewpoint that technology could save the world. I began my career designing computer systems which were supposed to improve the quality of life for everyone on the planet.

This lofty goal was shattered when I first saw one of my early computer systems in an electronic salvage yard. I began to realize that my designs might not leave a trace, let alone be a legacy for the future.

Don't give up your day job - part 3

There is at least one really good reason for not giving up a day job in order to do something you love. The things you love to do may not be exchangeable for enough income to live on.

This scenario of dull remunerative day job vs low-paying ideal job may be the most common situation of all. Many of us enjoy doing cool things that are a lot of fun and have found that very few people want to pay us to do them.

Photographers are keenly aware of this. Shooting beautiful photographs of exotic locales has enabled them to earn respectable incomes in the past. Today, digital cameras put professional technology into the hands of anyone with an American Express card. It is a lot easier to capture a hummingbird in mid flight or a boxer at the moment of impact than it was in the past. Digital cameras and minicams allow everyday citizens to capture events in high resolution color  and sound that were the sole province of professionals just a few years ago.

Singers and musicians often find local venues which they love and where they are thoroughly admired. These venues often cannot afford to pay them very much, but they do offer them an audience and time on the stage. A weekly gig in front of people who love you does a lot for your soul and for your skills. The rewards are so great that it is worth keeping the day job.

Abandoning a friendly local venue for larger and possibly indifferent audiences in order to make your art a paying proposition calls for a drastic change in your attitude to your art. It is no longer a labor of love, you have to make decisions that will maximize your income. You have to play what the listeners want, not what you consider important. It has become a job. And then some drunk in the back yells, "Play Freebird!" and you wonder why you ever gave up your day job...

Programmers run into the same kind of trap. They start out writing games or cool applications at night and they find out that no one wants to pay for them. They haven't done their marketing or they would have found that people readily pay only for dull things like maintaining legacy software or utilities that run on Windows machines. Innovative software applications take an incredible amount of creative effort and require endless amounts of support, which startups rarely plan for and almost never deliver.

Freeware is the programming equivalent of a musician playing for the joy of it. Shareware is the equivalent of playing for tips. Both have their place in the world and are best supported by a solid day job that does not take over your life.

There are exceptions to every rule, of course, and I know when someone works very, very hard doing what they love and pushes themselves to achieve greatness, that their creations DO eventually command prices that free them from their day jobs forever. This may take years of struggle and personal deprivation, but it can be done. Furthermore, these people may still love what they are doing, even when it has become a livelihood instead of a labor of love.

Jeannette Caruth has made that transformation, and is reaping the rewards of years of learning to paint while supporting herself with a day job. I know of several others who have mastered a skill while supporting themselves with a day job.

The acid test is how good do you want to be? Good enough to be applauded, or so outstanding that people bid for your services? In either case, keeping your day job allows you to flex your wings before you have to fly for a living. In many cases, you may decide that a balance of a secure job and a non-paying but rewarding career is the optimum path to follow.

How many find that this describes your situation?

What would happen if you could keep this going for years?

Don't give up your day job - part 2

Working for yourself is not an all-or-nothing proposition. If you have been able to accumulate enough money to live on for six months and additional funds to launch your new business, then you might very well abandon your day job and succeed as a self-employed business owner. Otherwise, you won't.

Far too many of us have started a business with inadequate funds and hoped to make a go of our dream by working incredible hours, only to find that the law of gravity has not been repealed and that credit cards will only carry us so far.

There are an infinity of mistakes that can be made in any business and our chances of success are increased greatly if we have a decent financial cushion to recover from a few of them without going under. If you are spread so thin financially that one mistake will put you under, you are merely gambling, not investing in your future.

If you continue doing your best with your day job, your manager's insanities, and the interminable bs staff meetings and useless reports, while developing a business of your own, you guarantee that your family will go on eating while you reach for a more rewarding game in life.

This is not for everyone, because you are essentially working two jobs at once and many companies expect you to work 150% on the job they hired you to do. They expect that because the organization spends too much of its working day in meetings and useless report writing to get much useful work done.

However, there are a few jobs that deserve 150% of your effort. If you have one of them, you probably think about work on a 24x7 basis because you are being allowed to create and use all of your abilities. You do not need another job. You probably have difficulty remembering that you have a family and a life outside of work. :)

If you have the all-too-common dead-end job in a company that is slowly losing ground, you owe it to yourself to look out for your future. You may not feel up to looking for another job in the same industry for fear of being discovered and dismissed, but you had better do something soon. You can see the handwriting on the wall, but you sit frozen in your cubicle hoping that you can make it through another quarter. You need to investigate a second job or the possibility of working for yourself.

The mere effort of investigating new opportunities will revitalize you and will get your creative juices flowing. Your efforts to develop or discover a viable business model may bring to light all sorts of skills you had forgotten about. It may take several tries to find a business model that works but you have the luxury to try and try again if you have a day job to support you.

You may also realize that your creativity has been stifled by a manager who does not want anyone to make waves. Fearing for his job, he does everything he can to stifle ideas that might require him to make a decision or worse, to propose a change to upper management.

Once you start making your own decisions and dealing with the repercussions and the successful results, your confidence will soar. When your self-employment starts generating real income, you will know when it is time to phase out the day job.

Even if you find that you eventually need to return to working for others, the fre