letting go...

Every once in a while, and maybe more often lately, I find myself in a position where I realize I can’t control everything as I once did.

When I started this business years ago, I did it all, all the time, and all by myself. Of course I used my subcontractors, but when it came to carpentry type things, I was alone in it. Partly because I wanted as much work as I could do myself and part was probably an economic reason. I just didn’t want to pay anyone else for what I could do.

If you were to ask the Artist, she would say …. stubbornness…. (more on that in another posting..hahahaha)

Anyhow I am being faced more and more with the fact that I need to depend on others more then I ever have as I keep working in this trade. I have to on a daily basis be in tune with the fast changing technology that we find even in what we used to call basic carpentry. Legal issues, State and federal rules and regulations, licensing changes, new and ever changing techniques, code changes, and it goes on and on until it makes you want to scream and say “I just want to be a carpenter”!

Well those days of just being a carpenter are over. I find myself counting on others more and more to keep the jobs going. I have to accept the fact that maybe, just maybe, my lead carp has picked up on skills faster then expected and on some planet in another galaxy he would be better then me….maybe……

I need to realize I am not superman. I have to delegate more, I have to let others who are experts in their field come alongside and do their thing. I need to let my employees find their way. It may not be my way, but their way may be just as good.  That’s the hard part. That’s where I need to let go.

As we find ourselves coming soon to the end of another year, my goal for 2013 will be to let go.

Ask me someday how it’s going.

~The Carpenter