The road less traveled

     I find my visual artistic skills to be limited. I can make things look nice, but usually within the confines of a structure. I have painted four plaster casts. Three of them had detailed structure. A snail with texture, a brick castle a king on a throne, and a yin-yang disk. The yin-yang disk was simple and smooth. It turned out the ugliest. The other three required special attention to detail. I am very proud of them. When left to create the entire image, I struggle. When given certain guidelines I floursih.

     This holds true in other areas of my life. In music, give me a tempo and I can find a chord structure. Give me a chord structure, I can give you a melody. All music I create has a structure imprinted on my brain. Tempo and time scale have already been taught to me. Put me in a job with a specific set of procedures, I rise to the top easily. Restaurants, gas stations, dog kennels, department stores, cab driving...they all have a very basic job description. Restaurants: take order, take payment, cook food, serve food, clean up. Gas stations: Add up gas and products, announce total, take payment, re-stock, clean up. Dog kennels: play with dogs, feed dogs, clean up after dogs. Department stores: Re-stock items, answer questions about items, take money for items. Cab driving: use map to find passenger, pick up passenger, use map to find destination, drop off passenger. Eventually you can skip the map.

     Currently, I own my own business. It's not exactly struggling, but it isn't very established either. The thing is, I have to make my own rules most of the time. I am bound by the National Electric Code of course, but even that is not always strictly enforced. I am supposed to get a permit from the government to do any work in any location. I get my permits at times, but sometimes I see no need to pay the government to tell me that I did a good job. Even when I do get a permit, the inspector may not notice a problem, or outright allow a situation that is against the Code. My point being, there isn't a hard handbook to what I do. I have to take work from customers who are scattered all over my area. Most can't imagine how many different tasks I end up doing, but regardless it is much harder than the other jobs I have worked in my life. I must say, I like it this way. I don't want to take the easy road. I may struggle for longer, but I am sure the reward will be greater. The longer you let a problem exist, the harder it is to repair the damage; the more effort needed to put into a cause, the greater the reward.