I can think of only one thing...I had a chance as a young man to learn custom paint... striping and wood graining under a local master (in Denver) and passed on the chance because I needed the guaranteed paycheck my job offered.
It was truly a once in a lifetime chance to do creative work for a custom motor cycle shop.
The shop is long gone but if I had done it I can't help but wonder what would I have been doing today and where would I be?
I don't dwell on it because I am greatful for everything I am, who I'm with and what I do.
But I still wonder?
How about you?
-------------------- "Werks fer me...it'll werk fer you"
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I wish I had started with more money. I had done some work on the side from lettering racecars to gas stations. I ran a glass company for harmon autoglass when they wanted me to run off a old timer installer becouse his pay rate was to high. He was also the best installer that we had. I didnt want to play ball and refused. My general manager was two hours away when we had the argument on the phone I told him I quit and he got peeoed and asked about my notice. I told him if he got here if 5 min he could notice my asss hiting the door. I walked away from the glass buisness with about 600 bucks in the bank and started my sign shop. It sure would have been nice to work up some capital before a made the jump. I t probably set me back 2 or 3 years. I am also glad I never looked back and got in this craft that makes me so proud and happy.
-------------------- Ryan Young Indocil Art & Design indocil@comporium.net 803-980-6765
I highjacked Letterville!! Winter Muster 2004 Posts: 904 | From: Rock Hill, SC | Registered: Sep 2001
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Monte this posting comes with alot of smiles from me. I can list about 20 different "What If's" from Girlfreinds to rushing home from college to save the family business. Sometimes we go with our gut instinct, sometimes we go with what freinds and/or outsiders tell us to do, sometimes we even listen to our parents, and sometimes we even use our own thoughts.
Since I can honestly say that decisions have molded my life and I cannot complain too much about it though I know it might be different had I made different decisions, I'm pretty content with what I have. I must admit nowadays when a decision comes up that I have trouble with, I usually remind myself, "Columbus took a chance". That usually gets me thru the decision process faster and has been pretty good to me so far.
Bottom line is, we will usually second guess our decisions even when we made the right decision or perceive to have made the right decision.
Maybe its part of that Left versus Right brain function thing again.
-------------------- Harris Kohen K-Man Pinstriping and Graphix Trenton, NJ "Showing the world that even I can strategically place the pigment where its got to go." Posts: 1739 | From: Trenton, NJ, USA | Registered: Jun 2001
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I have a few decisions in the past that I wonder about. I don't regret my decisions just sometimes wonder what that path would've led to, how things would be different. I end my wandering thoughts with "If I had chosen that path, I probably wouldn't have...." then I list the people closest to me that have only come into my life AFTER that crossroad, every minute I got to spend with my Pap before we lost him, my husband, my step-son, my puppies, my business, my friends here. I think I would've ended up in the sign business, maybe earlier, maybe later.
-------------------- Chris Welker Wildfire Signs Indiana, Pa Posts: 4254 | From: Indiana, PA | Registered: Mar 2001
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At the risk of getting too deep.....If we could do things differently, we would no longer be who we are now. Our lives are the sum total of all our experiances, good and bad decisions shape the opportunities that come before us every day. It's good to look back and learn from our mistakes, even better to learn from others, but never wish it were different. We can't change the past, but we can hope and plan for the future. Now, if I had never got conned into the Amway thing......
-------------------- Carper's Signs 594 Union School Rd. Mount Joy, PA 17552 carpersign@earthlink.net Posts: 157 | From: Lancaster, PA, USA | Registered: Aug 1999
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I wish I would have finished college ar Art Center, and then hopefully had gone to Cranbrook. That was my goal, at a very early age, I was very involved in graphic design early on. I do work at one of the best design firms in the country, with no degree, Im the only one there without one, but it would be nice to have finished that goal. Rick
-------------------- Rick Chavez Hemet, CA Posts: 1540 | From: Hemet,CA U.S.A. | Registered: Jun 2001
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I'm proud to be from a free country where we have the right to make these decisions. Whether they're right or wrong doesnt matter as much as the ability to be able to make them for ourselves.
Hopefully now the Iraqians will be able to make these good/terrible decisions too.
-------------------- Harris Kohen K-Man Pinstriping and Graphix Trenton, NJ "Showing the world that even I can strategically place the pigment where its got to go." Posts: 1739 | From: Trenton, NJ, USA | Registered: Jun 2001
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well let's put it this way..i wish i was 25 again(and could stay there) but know what i know now...this is gonna be hard for some of you to believe(laughter)but i'm a bit impulsive. i'll have a dream...decide yeah that's what i want...and boom i'm there...usually saying,"what the f&*k have i done to my life?" (in a happy way) of course i pass this by my husband as telling him it's a gut feeling. ya know a gift from within ...yep i'm in this business deep but there's not alot i would change except for maybe staying totally focused and not drifting onto other ventures...for a few years i decided i was going to make the best candle in the world...well i did, but selling them is another story. once i developed all the scents, i was bored..the fun was over...so i sold it and concentrated on signs only...it's been uphill since...of course i needed a little challenge so i got the router...i'm not bored anymore...for now...
-------------------- Karyn Bush Simply Not Ordinary, LLC Bartlett, NH 603-383-9955 www.snosigns.com info@snosigns.com Posts: 3516 | From: Bartlett, NH USA | Registered: Jan 2001
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I can relate with Ron and Karyn. Every little decision we make unfolds part of who we are. When I went to Hawaii in the late 70's....I came home a day early. On the plane is where I met my future husband....thus our two kids. IF I wouldn't have come home early.....I would have had different kids.
As far as what I would do different in the sign biz. I probably would have stuck with the handpainting. I wouldn't have gone totally vinyl for the last 14 years. It has definately pulled me in a direction that is not as satisfying. I am grateful that I learned the computer....but wish I would have kept up with the handpainting as well. But I am getting back into it now!
Posts: 3729 | From: Seattle | Registered: Sep 1999
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Boy, if I could go back to the 70"s and start again in So. Cal.. I would have started doing this business a lot earlier and set myself up in a great, fully loaded shop. That's about it.
-------------------- Signs by Alicia Jennings (Mudflap Girl) Tacoma, WA Since 1987 Have Lipstick, will travel. Posts: 3949 | From: Tacoma, WA. U.S.A. | Registered: Dec 1999
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I shoulda NEVER got married.....never could get it right! Got great kids out of it, but the marriage stuff just cost a whole lotta money. I guess I'm just one o those born-to-be-single guys. Maybe thats why I'm so cranky ........and ecstatically happy
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i would have stayed with the postal service and did signs on the side. iwould be retired now and not have to work after 3 strokes.
-------------------- Jimmy Chatham Chatham Signs 468 stark st Commerce, Ga 30529 Posts: 1766 | From: Commerce, GA, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Maybe it's my age but no, I wouldn't change anything up to this point.
My experiences have made me who I am, and I'm pretty dang happy with that person - a risk taker and opportunity maker. I'm not one to dwell on the past either and ask "what if's".. what's done is done so if you want a change you have to look into the future.
The only thing I would change is when I first moved to Lake Havasu 3.5 years ago.. single home lots were selling for $10,000.. today it's hard to find a lot under $60,000. I could have bought a lot and sat on it a few years, then used the 50 grand to pay off my 40 acre parcel in the desert, install a huge solar power setup out there and paid for all my building materials. .. but all that is going to happen eventually anyway so the only difference is the time frame.
-------------------- "If I share all my wisdom I won't have any left for myself."
Mike Pipes stickerpimp.com Lake Havasu, AZ mike@stickerpimp.com Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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Lots of what is said here is really good. But for me, except for that Amway thing, Ron Carper just about wrapped it up with a bow on it.
I have always found it to be a scary process to think of the road NOT taken. Scary because it may lead to self recriminations I am not ready or smart enough to face. So I try really hard to be the best I can be right now and live in the moment. That, after all, is exactly where my decisions have led me to.
I have a little picture in my bedroom that shows nothing but a path with an equal split down it, turning it into two paths just alike.
I at times go there just before making a decision that needs "forethought".
Other than that I can't second guess too much, because the here and now always needs my attention.
Ihope that makes some sense as an answer.
-------------------- Myra A. Grozinger Signs Limited Winston-Salem, NC
signslimited@triad.rr.com Posts: 1244 | From: Winston-Salem, NC USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Hi Myra!! :^) Dad says "hello" und benehm Dich ordentlich, gell?" hehe......... He's funny! If I had it to do over again I wouldn't have opened that cabinet door! But I guess that was just fate, no? I'm probably not old enough yet to regret anything, but I do know that I'm keeping my family the most important thing in my life. I won't have to regret not doing that.
posted
Si hit the nail on the head for me. I am happy with the path I've taken, but you know what they say about "short term memory loss"? I lost about 20 years of productivity from that
posted
I too wouldn't change a thing because it has all led me to who I am today and who I am with (my husband and my daughter).
Cheryl, it's funny you mention that story about meeting your ex-husband. A friend of mine and I were talking just yesterday about stuff like that. We grew up in NJ and she now lives in San Diego. Well, she's in the grocery store looking for something for lunch and she walks right past a dear old friend of ours from high school. We've been trying to find this person for years and all we knew was that someone thought he was living in Kentucky. They were right, he does live in Kentucky but he was out here giving a private piano concert. What are the freakin' chances that they'd run into each other?! Stuff like that scares me!
Anyway, the big turning point for me was when I was 19, living in NJ still. My parents had split up (NASTY divorce) and my mom ran away to San Francisco to try and clear her head. I flew out to visit her for Christmas and fell in love with the place. I was 19, had NO responsibilities and was thrilled to get away from things myself. I went back to NJ, packed my stuff and flew back to SF. Well, I was there for 15 years and would still be there if we could afford it and if my husband's company would stop transferring us all over the place.
My early 20s weren't the best, a lot of struggling but it all led up to meeting my husband (one day in the park) and then having my daughter. We're pretty much the typical American happy family now. Happily married (very happily), house, minivan, kid, cat, dog and we're on our way to Disneyland today.
-------------------- Kimberly Zanetti Purcell www.amethystProductivity.com Folsom, CA email: Kimberly@AmethystProductivity.com
“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” AA Milne Posts: 3723 | From: Folsom, CA | Registered: Dec 2001
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If I had just gotten a job, any job, even a minimum wager and stayed with it I'd have made a Hell of a lot more money than I've made painting signs. The day I got the notice that I could go to L.A. Trade-Tech to learn sign painting was the same day I FINALLY got accepted to go work for the Forestry Service. I walked around for two days with an envelope in each hand weighing the option. WTF have I done...
I was in love with a redhead once - - she drove me to drink. It's the one thing I am indebted to her for. _______________________to borrow a quote from W. C. Fields
[ April 13, 2003, 06:08 PM: Message edited by: Mike Languein ]
Posts: 1859 | From: / | Registered: Nov 1998
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At the major turning points in my life, I think I have taken the right road. Wasted a bit of time in some side alleys ... but that's part of the learning curve.
Here I am now. Good business, nice home, loving wife, wonderful friends and enjoying life.
Just wish I had got here sooner!
But don't you wish you knew 30 years ago what you know now! hahahahaha
posted
Reading this post, as I'm listening to Stevie Ray Vaughn blasting WFO on the stereo. The thought came to mind, what if SRV hadn't been on that helicopter?! I'm sure Eric Clapton says something similar. "What if I HAD been on that helcopter?!" I believe we make the decisions that we do, with our best intentions at the time. If it's a bad move, hopefully we can learn from it. Here for a good time, not a long time.
-------------------- Luke S. Luke Scanlan Artistry Ocala, Fl. lukescanlan@cox.net Posts: 249 | From: Ocala, Florida | Registered: Nov 2001
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Bob, You crack me up! Yes, as soon as possible - we are outta here. I'm so not a desert girl. We're trying to get back to Northern California or San Diego. By the end of the year we hope.
-------------------- Kimberly Zanetti Purcell www.amethystProductivity.com Folsom, CA email: Kimberly@AmethystProductivity.com
“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” AA Milne Posts: 3723 | From: Folsom, CA | Registered: Dec 2001
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I am 41 with a great staff and family, The ONLY thing I would change is I would have had more respect for the money I earned when young. I would be in SOOOOO much better shape today. However, I would not want to be a young person who has to endure the world which is only getting worse.
""Good judgment comes from experience; and a lot of that comes from bad judgment" - Will Rogers Posts: 3503 | From: Beautiful Newaygo, Michigan | Registered: Mar 2003
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bet she says the same thing ..steve....hehehehehe couldnt help it. for me...penna would have been the only place i would have ever been....if i listened to my parents!!!! and i woulda been a coal miner or a steel mill worker in the mid 80's..wonderin where my next paycheck was comin from. but i was never one to listen to anyone..except the 1st sign painter i ever met. i shoulda acted on this line of work, instead of getting all those "jobs" that i detested!!! money...well, coulda made a lot more, and spent a lot more. we all get what we NEED! and if i woulda had money...i probably would be as big an A**HOLE as most with money are!!!!!! so i will never have to worry about that. as for doin it over and changin things...yea....woulda got outa my family earlier, left penna sooner, became a sign painter with out all them other "jobs"!!!!! and i would probably be a lot richer today...if i woulda started at 18-20 full time!!!
-------------------- joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-637-1519 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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...Hey Jon, that's the "qualifier", ain't it?..to get to do it all over with a little more wisdom!! I think I would not start drinkin' an' partyin' so hard at such a young age....but then again, as so many have said, I would'nt be who I am now with out all that hell I put myself thru...not that I'm all that wonderful now,LOL....but I would'nt have seen a need to meet the lord, and I certainly was'nt exactly on the road to success.....wish I'da met Him sooner!
-------------------- Signs Sweet Home Alabama
oneshot on chat
"Look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, work like a dog" Posts: 5758 | From: "Sweet Home" Alabama | Registered: Mar 2003
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Well said Sheila! My experience is similar. I'd have to think hard to know what I'd change now, but I wish I hadn't taken the BIG DUMMY road to get here. There's gotta be an easier way. It's like how thrashed and frazzled would Wiley Coyote look after 500 failed attempts to catch the roadrunner? Still got alot of "go" left,(42 now). But sometimes I still feel 20, I'm wondering if I'll ever feel mature, responsible and all, like Mr. Cleaver. Maybe it comes so slowly that you think you're the same as back then, but you're not. Anyway glad you know HIM. Jim D.
-------------------- James Donahue Donahue Sign Arts 1851 E. Union Valley Rd. Seymour TN. (865) 577-3365 brushman@nxs.net
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what's for lunch, Benjamin Franklin Posts: 2057 | From: 1033 W. Union Valley Rd. | Registered: Feb 2003
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A "KEY" is a KILO of... if your smokin/doin drugs.
-------------------- joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-637-1519 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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this post comes at an interesting time for me i have just found and re-read a book from way back called 'replay' i first read it well over 20 years ago and this time round loved it just as much as the first
if you ever find yourself really wondering what life would be like if you got the chance to do it all over again, grab this book and have an interesting evening the story of course is about someone who gets to do just what we are talking about here... i wont say more so as not to spoil it for those that may wish to read it
i too beleive that we are the sum of all that was collected in our experiances, from the choise of our parents to our dreams and aspirations and accidental encouters
i know that the bad times have in the words of richard bach 'bought the gifts that we needed to have' and like most of you, i couldn't decide which of the gifts i would wish to give up in order to not have had the yukky bits so consider it all worth keeping
i often wonder if i'd stayed at school instead of leaving at 15 what that alternate reality would have looked like
devo and i have with hours of reflective conversation found that at many times in our individual earlier days had come so very close to meeting, with so many shared friends and experiances that we sumtimes have wondered if we would have been together anyway even if we'd made 'other' choices
i try not to have regrets cause like we all agree they don't serve us well but....if we are just wondering then, what if! 1/i'd stayed at school and become the teacher i'd planed on.... i do teach, i hold classes in computer signmaking among other things 2/not gotten married, saved my money and traveled, well i have seen more than half of this country plus new zealand then in 2000 i went around the world meeting letterheads and having a ball 3/not gotten sick and had the freedom to do whatever i want, i sleep when i'm tired, eat when i'm hungry,work when i want and....i'm still here!
hehehe
does it get any better?
cheers gail
-------------------- Gail & Dave Hervey Bay Qld Australia
gail@roadwarriorproducts.com.au
sumtimes ya just gota! Posts: 794 | From: 552 O'Regans Creek Rd Toogoom Qld 4655 Australia | Registered: Nov 1998
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On second thought... I was thinking about this question today and decided one thing I would change, well actually a lot of things, all hinging on 1.
When I was 16, I started doing technical illustrations (yawn). When I was 19 and in college, we got a big project and the manager decided there would be too much for me to handle so he brought in this schmuck who couldn't even read simple words on a sketch and type them on a drawing, spelling them correctly (they were spelled right on the sketch). The only revisions to my drawings happened after technical review when someone figured out I was given incorrect information. After a few months, the big project slowed down a lot and there wasn't enough work to keep 2 people busy, like everyone except the manager knew would happen. Even when it was busy, the only reason there was enough work for 2 is because the guy screwed off half the time. The manager decided I was going to work "as-needed" which really meant very rarely. His exact answer to why the guy was still full time and I wasn't was that "HE has a wife to support" (I swear I can still hear him saying those very words). Well, I had college to pay for on my own, was helping my parents since my dad got hurt, didn't have parents who could and did give me $10,000 for a downpayment and didn't have a spouse who was too lazy to work.
Thinking back, I shoulda sued the SOB for discrimination (big company, they settle out of court). Then I could of used the $ to start a sign shop, which I had been wanting to do for a long time before I actually did. That way I wouldn't have started with no money and would be years ahead of where I am now.
-------------------- Chris Welker Wildfire Signs Indiana, Pa Posts: 4254 | From: Indiana, PA | Registered: Mar 2001
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I would have CHARGED MORE - right from the beginning, and had the courage to not back down. I'm convinced it would have made a world of difference in how I was preceived by the paying public. I would have gotten more of the higher end sign work I craved and was capable of, without letting myself get taken advantage of so often.
Looking back, even when I didn't have all that much experience (in years), I had a lot of heart, and gave so much great stuff away to people who didn't even 'get' it, in the hopes of establishing a reputation. Well I did, as a real good and real cheap pushover. The word got out, but it was the wrong word. Now-a-days I'm not even willing to do a lot of the bizarre stuff I did at 20, (like blazing murals 40' up on stucco walls). Nope, I'm very patient and protective of my skills now. When I do get a call for something high calibre, they pay - oh brother they pay.
SONGPAINTER Original Sign Music by Sign People NOW AVAILABLE on CD and the proceeds go to Letterville's favorite charity! Click Here for Sound Clips! Posts: 1974 | From: Orleans, MA, Cape Cod, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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