Stakeholder Position

I know many have been waiting for this opportunity for some time, there is finally a Stakeholder position opening! Almost 3 Years ago I put my career on the line, gave my notice to my work before knowing how the launch of the Stakeholder Program was going to turn out! I really didn’t know what to expect but I was stepping out in faith. The morning of the Stakeholder Launch finally arrived and I was standing by with my family, and some friends were on their way over to watch the progress. The launch was set for 9Am But before 9 o’clock rolled around the site was down! And it wasn’t coming back up! People where hammering my site, refreshing as fast as they could and getting the same results as I was… Error! So from the beginning we told people if they wanted to get in to sign up for my mailing list, with the site down for who knows how long we decided to send out a link by email. (this may not of been the best way, but it was what we decided at the time)  We updated Facebook and Jack did a update on his site, to let people know to be looking for an email. As fast as the emails could go out the orders started rolling in! My phone couldn’t keep up with all the notifications coming threw and after all that wait, it was over in about 6 minutes! I couldn’t believe it! The MT Knives Stakeholder Program was a HUGE SUCCESS! Last year MT Knives LLC sent out over 500 knives!!! As always there were a few who were mad and felt things weren’t fair. But hey that is pretty much most of life, most people were happy, many encouraged. This was the start of something big, it gave hope to others who dream of doing the same thing.

Lessons learned

• Things always take longer than expected
• The grass looks greener on the other side
• In all Labor there is profit
• You can’t make everyone happy
• How to be a better employee

These are just a few of the lessons I have learned over the last three years. Some I already knew, but now are more concrete.

First Things always take longer than expected. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and good knives aren’t either. Many Master Bladesmiths spend weeks if not months to complete 1 knife. My original goal of doing 2 possibly 3 Limited Edition runs a year was quickly changed, what I had hoped to take 3-4 months ended up taking 2-3 times as long! My goal has always been to produce the best possible knife I can, and not sacrifice quality for production. Going forward a more reasonable goal is 1 limited edition run a year, yet that still depends on the knife itself.

The grass looks greener on the other side. I always thought if I was working for myself I would have time to garden, fish, hunt, and the list goes on and on. In reality it seems like the work never ends. There is never a time where there is nothing for me to do. Like now, it is almost 11 pm I got up at 730am (after going to bed around 130am) and worked in the shop till 9 then came in to answer emails and write an update on the site, along with setting up the email to go out as well. I will be up past midnight once again, and getting up at 730 to hopefully have a productive day to end the week. One self-employed person said it best “I love being my own boss, I can work any 16 hours of the day I want!” Or even better the meme that I saw “Entrepreneur- the only person willing to work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40!”  Running a business requires far more work than most would think, especially in the beginning. I believe that is why most don’t make it past the first couple of years. But I feel it is worth the labor for the end results.

In all Labor there is profit. All hard work brings profit, and profit isn’t always monatary. Many people want to get rich quick, they see successful people and think they got there with out any work. But the truth is, I don’t know anyone who is truly successful that isn’t an extremely hard worker. In fact I would venture to say, most of them work too much. I my best to keep my family first, but work must be done to provide for their needs.

You can’t make everyone happy. This one is hard for me because I hate for someone to feel like I didn’t do enough. I try to provide the best customer service possible. I try to answer every email and call. But no matter what you do there will always be someone who thinks you should do things differently. Bottom line, I am not perfect, and even if I was there would still be someone who isn’t happy about it. 😀

How to be a better employee. Even when you work for yourself you are still basically an employee of your customer base. Now being the person to sign they front of a paycheck from time to time, If I had to go back to working for someone else I would have a greater appreciation for the work they do in order to provide a job for me where I can go home at the end of the day at leave work at work. No one will care as much about a company as the owner who built it.

I placed the first bid!

I didn’t save a stakeholder position for myself, I doubt I will get this position either but I placed the first bid! I am ALL IN, I think things are just getting started. I look forward to see who will be the next Stakeholder to fill this position! Each Stakeholder adds value to MT Knives, I am happy to have each Stakeholder join in on this journey with me. This is the very first position to be auctioned off, I am really surprised it took this long honestly. It will be exciting to see how this auction goes, it is sad to see a stakeholder leave but exciting at the same time. I can say this though, once a stakeholder always a stakeholder in my books, I couldn’t of done this without everyones support! Be sure to follow this auction, I am sure this one people will be talking about for some time! Here is a link to the Auction. Click Here Happy Bidding!