Nothing To It, But To Do It

Have you noticed there are a lot of folks talking about accomplishing many tasks and it seems nothing ever gets done? I’m not going to mention politicians, it’s a given they rarely do what they say; and the lack of initiative affects everyone and everything. It may not even be a case of being too busy or maybe it’s not being motivated enough or not having enough of the right people to complete the task, whatever the reason. Woulda, coulda, shoulda still means nothing got done.

I’m guilty as charged - I have hundreds, possibly thousands of loose gemstones and diamonds I have collected over the decades. I was pretty excited when I bought each and every one of them; I even had the piece the gem(s) would go into designed and finished in my head. The only problem is my plate was and is always full with additional full plates stacked up behind it and finding time to do what I wanted to do for myself was nearly impossible.

If I complain, many will tell me to be grateful you’re busy - many folks are not. To me it’s a double-edged sword because the necessary downtime I require in the summer months to avoid “jeweler’s bench burnout” means my occasional absences tend to irritate some folks. To make matters worse the older I’m getting, the more I dump on my son to push out the work just to keep up with the demand. Hire more bench jewelers you say… unemployed skilled bench jewelers are scarce in these here parts. 

Custom created jewelry is literally made to order for individual customers and is almost always a one-of-a-kind piece. Add on top of that I’m one of the busiest jewelry repair shops in Southwest Florida - and that includes being busy in the so called “off season.” Flocks of my occasional residents (AKA snowbirds) notoriously come in with complicated repairs or restoration work a day or so before they were planning to leave the Island or Naples proper and head back up north, west, or wherever. Doing thirty to forty complicated and time-consuming repair jobs in 24 hours is a bit difficult. Most leave their ill planned projects with me to complete in the summer months, and it will be completed when they return next season. My motto has always been, “The impossible done daily, miracles may take a bit longer!” My point is that time is precious and so is expensive jewelry, the tedious work cannot be rushed and I won’t accept the work (especially if it’s a custom job!) if the customer is in a hurry.

This reminds me of a jeweler I knew in Naples off Fifth Avenue. A few years back he never said NO and took in everything and anything from shoe buckles, belts, handbags, and tons of costume jewelry (anything that glittered). Problem was he never got to complete anything. I was in his back room workshop a few times and you could not count the shoe boxes on shelves, tables and even stacked on the floor all loaded with job repair envelopes. The expensive jewelry and junk repairs all intermingled. I also remember he became ill and suddenly passed away leaving that backroom and its contents a living nightmare for his family to return what to who.

I know when to say no and never accept more than I can handle. Except for one thing in my safe I have the infamous family box full of broken jewelry from close family members who always mail or give me a sandwich bag full of broken stuff when they come to visit me. Family work is, as you can imagine, mostly non-profit and real tough for me to get to. The proof was recently revealed…I finished something for my niece who is now forty years of age; she claimed she gave me that ring to fix when she was in high school. I told her not to rush me!

It once took me ten months to get around to replenishing my window washing fluid in my truck. I tried writing down a daily scheduling of things and projects to do each day at the shop and then divvy them up between my son and I. It reminded me of something my grandfather once said to me… “if you want to make God laugh - just tell him your plans!

Anyone in business who deals with the public knows unless you lock the door and take the phone off the hook nothing is going to plan. Even if I had an extra set of hands, I’d be in the weeds every season. The result is late nights burning the midnight oil or spending a few hours on a Sunday morning just so I can get a leg up on things.

I have learned anything done cheap and quickly is never a good thing, having something done right isn’t always inexpensive and takes time. So maybe in my next life I will be able to figure out when how long is too long and how much is too much.

Richard Alan is a designer/goldsmith and owner of The Harbor Goldsmith. His shop is celebrating 25 years of excellence on Marco Island. Richard, his family, and staff wish to thank all his customers and friends for their patronage from the humble beginning many years ago to the present and the years to come. www.harborgoldsmith.com.