Who’d of thought that a website with a space to piece together some random thoughts, adventures, or what have you would ever become so “old school” so quickly? It truly is kind of hard to imagine of such a thing, especially if you, like myself were born before 1980. But then again, I never thought that the hard wired house telephone or books for that matter would be such a thing of the past either. I know some of you younger folks are probably reading this in bewilderment, rolling your eyes letting your biases filter into your brains with colorful metaphors and nicknames all while simultaneously wondering when I’m going to tell you about how rough I had it growing up. You know the story; walked to school barefoot, uphill both ways kind of bullshit, everyone was tougher back then because of X-Y-Z blah blah blah.
Yeah. No.
I probably lost many of you already, because your circa 2021 conditioned short attention span has taken over your brain causing you to feverishly start swiping left or right on your Iphone cuz the odds are relatively low that you’re reading this from a desktop computer. It’s ok, I have found myself doing the same from time to time, but I recognize that Apple and many other tech companies have won by creating this information addiction that has changed the fabric of society. I have started to realize that I liked things and myself for that matter a lot more when I didn’t have a mini computer at my fingertips. I have this gut feeling that many of you out there, probably in the same age bracket or older are starting to push back on the machine and doing the same in a valiant effort to go back in time to what seemed to be a more innocent age when discovery was left up to the imagination and passing thru the front door of your house out into the real world and not by flicking your fingers across a computer screen in the palm of your hand.
My childhood is a constant reminder of that, and although my life wasn’t perfect by any means, it sure seemed like there was a whole lot less anxiety, angst and drama. With the close of my 18th year of being a small business owner in the flyfishing industry, I feel as though I am starting to see things a bit more clearly. I have always been a guy who constantly reassesses, looks at the big picture and tries to continue to forge ahead with my best foot forward and do so in the most simplistic way that I possibly can. I recognize that I am a very fortunate person, I have been able to take something that I am extremely passionate about and turn it into a rather nice livlihood. Many days, I honestly do not feel as though I am working, and although I hear it on a constant basis that so and so could never tie flies in the quantity that I do. Well, to be frank, that is why you aren’t me my friend, and that is what sets us apart from one another. When I guided on a much more regular basis, it was the same in that realm to. Passion makes people take things to extremes, and I clearly recognize that what I do daily fits into that category.
But I once again digress, so let me get back to my last thought. The one constant that swiping left or right, perusing the net for details or asking good old Siri for the golden answer simply will not give you is hard work. If you do not have a strong work ethic and drive, well I hate to tell you folks but you will fall short every time. Humans are always looking for a short cut to everything, its built into our DNA, but with short cuts often come consequence. I thank both of my parents for that character trait, because it has served me well. Hard work can be sidetracked by distractions, and recognizing them at times can be difficult especially if you buy into popular opinions that “you have to have this in this day in age to succeed”.
I too bought into that notion with the onset of social media that “I need it for my business” to succeed. Well, I’m here to say that I don’t necessarily believe that anymore. I had built up “my brand” so to speak before social media existed, the same way my father built his business as a carpenter; word of mouth. And although I have seen some growth via social media (small in all actuality once you really look at it), a majority of it was what I like to term a headache.
Being a commercial tier, any time spent away from my vise is time wasted, and over the course of a day a dialogue back and forth on “DM’s” can quickly turn into hours of time spent not completing the task at hand; tying peoples flies. Over time, there became more and more of what I refer to as “tire kickers” asking a plethora of questions only to never follow through on a purchase. Especially if you provide regular “content”, which in my case was an almost daily rendition of what flew off my vise the day prior. DM’s would almost always follow within minutes of a “content” drop but the same pattern would more often than not emerge. “Hey man, can I get what’s in this picture too?” Sure no problem, you’re looking at 6 weeks until I get to your order”. I would say that on 9 times out of 10 that would be the deal breaker, the reality that I couldn’t scratch that instant itch in our current world of swiping was unfathomable. You see, that is entirely ok, as many of you understand that time is a required ingredient in producing anything, let alone flies tied by someones hands.
So in closing, I hope to semi regularly start to write excerpts to share with you all here as it truly is enjoyable for me at times, and keeps all of you who have supported me through the years a bit in tune with whats going on over here. I often kick myself for erasing my original page from my earlier years as it had a plethora of good information there and was what spearheaded my move to an authentic webpage. My plans are to start doing some fly tying classes once again as there has been some interest in that department as well; whether I do them independently or through one of my affiliated fly shops or venues will be determined at a later date. I wish you all well and hope that you’re enjoying your time at the vise and/or on the water, and hope you will pop in on occassion. It has been a great year on the water on my end and I will share some stories and photos of that in the weeks to come. Until next time, here are some pictures of this past weeks work.
-Best,
-RS-
