Business practices of folks we know...

So I have been under the weather this weekend, trying to get up to speed so that my work week isn't so painful, and i was talking airplanes with a fellow colleague of mine before i went out on training, which brought a former fellow church member from my old church over a decade ago, I remember he bought up a struggling little kit airplane company and moved operations to a little shop in Webster Texas.

Now mind you, I am trying what I can to stay within what I know of copyright law / fair use and respecting the privacy of the person I am talking about, however I kind of have to divulge at least the company name due to copyright. It is NOT my intention to point this individual out and say "See what a schmuck this guy is?" I am NOT passing judgement on him as a person, but rather trying to give warning to others about business mistakes while following dreams...

The product he was selling was somewhat viable enough for aviation enthusiasts, a small kit built experimental aircraft, he was manufacturing the kits and from what I understand even turn key airplanes to order.
And as I understand it, he had orders. No idea if it was enough, or if he actually had the finances to pull it off, but there were orders...

Scan of a promotional postcard front for

the Airborne Innovations Wizard.

Scan of promotional postcard rear for

the Airborne Innovations Wizard.

I had the chance to tour the shop when he initially set up, and it looked good, everything was clean, well organized, there was an engineers precision to the entire thing. It looked good.

He worked in a different department for the company I worked for for several years after I left the church I was in previously, and I never heard much about his manufacturing company, I figured he didn't talk about it much so that he was't in any way having a conflict of interest, and I can respect that...

I always wondered what happened to him and his company. I moved on, years ticked by, and I did some Googling about his name, and his business name in relation to the city it was in, and found, well... conflicting information on his doings particularly in the time frame about the time I left that church...

On one hand, he worked for a large well known organization having to do with Aerospace and was receiving numerous awards for his work, and innovations that helped his company along.

On the other hand, there were several posts, and even entire web sites set up and to this day maintained talking about the poor and unethical business practices of his own privately held company.

Major issues such as taking payment in full, and never delivering product, failure to respond to communication attempts, up to and including registered mail, and finally just closing up shop and disappearing...

I know he had other life issues at the same time, not sure if one led to the other, not all that concerned either as it isn't my business or my point....

What I knew of this guy is this, he had a huge passion for aviation, and crazy good skills in Aerospace engineering, he came across an opportunity to pursue the dream to be one of the names remembered forever as a major contributor to his field, and I honestly think that is something in some way or another we want to leave a mark, a legacy that says we did something important.  Now building kit airplanes isn't the end all be all for most of us I bet, but I bet would love to be known for leaving our influence much in the same was as Norm Abram, or Zora Arkus Duntov (car guys will know...) or, well whoever...

But if we go about it recklessly, without sufficient backing, and a solid business plan, we stand to leave behind a much more shameful legacy, more like a cautionary tale than an inspirational story.

And worse yet, if you count yourself among the faithful, you stand to tarnish what could have been a great ministry, and end up being at best a poor ambassador for your faith.

I know like I said above, many of us have our own dream we are following, whether it is the big corporate job, a little shop of our own, or some network marketing opportunity, or just some silly blog / podcast (who does THAT still?!), give it your all, and don't ever short change your customers / audience. If you don't have the funds to follow through with the job at hand, don't take the job in the first place. Or get financial backing. We live in the age or Kickstarter, and GoFundMe, not to mention direct donations / payments for capitol. Maybe, just maybe start your thing up as a hobby and grow it from there,.

If you do it right, and honest, and fail, you can look your customer square in the eye with a good conscience and say, "I did all I could, since I couldn't come through, here is your refund, and thank you for the trust you put in me!"

Don't let your dreams die just because of a setback or two, if your dream is to be, it will, find the right way to do it, and go for it!

Speaking of going for it, and being under the weather, I am on day 3 of my Z Pack, hopefully thing respiratory thing will be clear by mid week, and I can con my lovely wife into helping out with material for my next installation. Faux Talavera pottery. Yeah I am trying to get her flower pots out of my shop...

I am realizing much to my chagrin that my cell phone takes true HD video and my 2006 digital camcorder does not. To that end, I have rigged a phone adapter to my tripod, and am getting consistently better at shooting with the phone.

The sound recording gear is all funded (and as soon as the check clears to Discover, paid off), I just have one last piece that has not come in yet, which is a pop filter for my mic, Apparently they shipped in via sail powered cargo ship from China, and then mule train overland to get here... That is the bad, the good is, the mic is sensitive enough I don't need to be close enough to the mic to need a pop filter... So that is pretty awesome...