The Home Entrepreneur - Spirit of a Craftsman

Recognizing what entrepreneurship is and where it comes from.

Jun 24, 2024

It is not a desire to be rich. It is not even about money.

In the U.S., 88% of millionaires are entrepreneurs, but only about 6% of entrepreneurs even approach $100K per year, and it likely took them a dozen failures and years to get there.

For me, an entrepreneur is simply someone who has the drive within them that wants to be in control of their own work life, earning enough to live a rewarding personal life while covering their bills and enjoy it as they see fit.

This is especially true of makers of handmade work, chefs, artists and musicians. Regardless of how often they fail at business, they dust themselves off and do what they have to in order to try it again from a new angle. If they have to flip burgers or drive an Uber for a few months to keep the lights on while they plan their next attempt, they do so with the knowledge of their missteps and how to avoid them next time. Their craft keeps them sane and brings them peace.

My Blog posts, News & Sneak Peeks & Archives are now FREE.
Get them sent directly to your email as they are published. If you enjoy what you read and would like to support my habit, I will still happily accept paid subscriptions or tips through my “Buy Me a Coffee” account. I appreciate the encouragement. I publish at least twice a week, Mondays and Fridays, and I reserve the right to add a “Paid Only” section to my Substack as ideas come to me.

CHILD-ing

While I am not a child psychologist or even a father, I have had enough life experience within a large family to make observations about how I evolved as a self-motivated earner and creator of “stuff”. Never underestimate what children are capable of understanding.

By watching parents, brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins and second cousins (some removed with just cause) and friends of the family, I came to conclusions at an early age how their motivations and needs formed how they lived their lives.

I listened when grownups spoke. Whether I agreed or not, I was able to suss out motivations and subjects that (I guess) they assumed were over my head. Perhaps being the firstborn of a firstborn gave me an edge. I primarily spent my formative years with adults. I was their test subject for child rearing and they probably erred on the side of love and caution, rightly or wrongly.

I believe that recognizing a natural born entrepreneur at an early age usually takes little more than watching how they treat others, care for what they have and how they handle their finances.

Do they have a bank account, or at least a “piggy” bank that they stash away whatever funds come their way?
Are they organized in thought and orderly in keeping their stuff?
Are they innovative and industrious?
How do they spend their money? Gumball machines or model car kits? At 10, I wanted a Ronco Bottle and Jar Cutter to make and sell sets of creative glassware on the corner. Later in life, I found one at a garage sale and determined it was crap. I dodged a bullet and didn’t even know it.
Are they selective about who they will share their personal possessions with, knowing that they will have to go without them if they are not returned or destroyed?
Are they constantly looking for ways to include themselves in your projects?

Dependability is a sure sign of a budding entrepreneur. Self-motivated people are on time, usually organized and ready to get at it, whatever the task.

I was raised by a single mother until the age of seven, spending half of my time with my grandparents and my aunts and uncles as my mom earned a living and struggled to provide and seek a “normal” household of her own. I never received an allowance.

To get things I wanted, I would pick wild blackberries, blueberries and apples and go door-to-door selling them. I shoveled snow. I painted and cleaned vacated apartments for my grandfather to re-rent. I dug into the banks of gullies that had been used as dumps to retrieve bottles, tools and household items that had been discarded 100+ years previously, then sold them to antique shops. I dived many a dumpster looking for things that could be cleaned up or fixed, to be used by me or resold at one of my mother’s famous garage sales. I smelled bad at the end of every day.

My grandfather was an army nurse with handyman side gigs. I was by my his side through apartment rehabs, sewer line breakages and digging graves. He never shirked a nasty job. Even during times of crisis, he would patiently include me with a job that he felt I could handle. Sometimes just holding a flashlight gave a five-year-old me a sense of purpose. Reward, for me, was his trust. Gaining a little knowledge and occasionally earning a few bucks created another brick of confidence to build on. Learning value and work ethics from him was very formulaic in how I approached my future.

My mother and step-father moved us at least once a year, across town or across the country. I went to 13+ different schools. With no lasting friends besides family, my “devices” were conjured in my head and with my hands. I built forts in the nearby woods of whatever house we were living in at the time. They were places I could store my booty and scheme for future adventures.

ADULT-ing

I have never held a “real job” for more than a few years. In slow times, between periods of doing mall shows or kiosks at theme parks, creating my own work, I was never above taking on a menial job to supplement our income. I have been (in no particular order) a short-order cook, sous-chef, kitchen manager, dishwasher, maintenance man, antique dealer, construction worker, roofer, draftsman, artist, cabinetmaker, sign maker, theme park minion, librarian and mill operator.

At each of these, I was internally determined to always work for myself, regardless of who was cutting my paycheck. Learning as I went, I retained aspects of that work I considered important and tossed things I deemed superfluous.

The longest (and last) of these employments was a 5 year stint at a local paper mill as a production line operator. It was a brutal, physically demanding job. There, I converted massive (4,000 pound) rolls of paper into user-friendly bathroom tissue and paper towels by the thousands. I used huge noisy machines, finicky robots and large amounts of tape that kept everything going. The money was decent for my area of Florida and the company insurance was much needed for my 43 year-old self. My coworkers were fabulous and hard working. But 12 hour shifts in steel-toe boots on concrete with no air-conditioning and constantly breathing paper dust was rapidly taking its toll on my body. I recognized that my future there was limited and I used the monotonous hours of machine monitoring to plot my next phase of life, working for myself again from home in the new age of the internet.

I started my current online concern in 2008, three years before I gave up the mill job. I made my stuff on days off and organically grew my business until certain targets were met, enough to quit killing myself. (See my blogs The Organic Home Workshop and Moonlighting)

NOW-ing

As I now too-rapidly approach my senior years, the lessons I learned as a child and in a life of work as an adult have enabled me to be confident that I will be able to sustain a comfortable (if not wealthy) lifestyle going forward. Dwelling on past mistakes and misdeeds is counterproductive to my future as long as I learn from them. We must always move forward.

My life now is acceptably physical. My wife and I have been in the same house for 42+ years. My mental processing is stable (or so I believe) and still creative. I am content building things in my head while waiting out a doctor’s appointment and I do not feel the need to be entertained with a smartphone. I rarely carry it.

My “fort” is now my 100 year old home and shed on the corner of paradise.

Until they take my sharp implements away, I’ll endeavor to treat everyone as I would like to be treated. I will continue to strive to give value to folks that enjoy and buy my works.

To me, success is not a bank balance or a mansion full of servants, but a happy home open to friends, with food and pets that love unconditionally. Bills get paid and I have no unmanageable debt. I have no enemies (that I know of) except gravity and time. I am not looking to score that million dollar project or beat out competitors for top ranking. Contentment and peace is enough for me.

Visit My Etsy Shop