OML Embroidery

There seems to be a trend gong on spanning a generation or two, but people have forgotten all about hard work!  It seems that everything should be free, or easy and something that is free or easy is worthwhile?

I am not that old, but the way I grew up was following the old sayings “you reap what you sow” and “work hard for what you want” and “anything easy or free is not worth your time” sort of thing.  Ok, I am paraphrasing a little bit here, but you get the idea.  What has happened to working hard?

I have a daughter, and I insisted that she learn the value of money, independence and the fact that you have to work for what you want – my job is not to simply give you everything and then send you on your way.  She has been working two of the 6 needle embroidery machines, with supervision, since she was 11 years old.  She has had an iPhone since they came out, but not for free.  She had to work for us a certain amount every week to pay for her iPhone – and her work was whatever we needed on that day.  My kid learned the harder, old school way.    And it is a good lesson indeed.

Personally, I work 7 days a week (I am supposed to have Sunday’s off, but it just never seems to work out that way, ever) and I have done this for 15 years with the companies that I own.  It’s just the way it is.  Sure its great to work at home, it certainly does have its advantages, and some big advantages, but it’s not all pretty flowers here either!  One thing, you never leave work.  Ever.  I am always here – even when I am not working, I am still here.  No, I am not complaining at all, don’t get me wrong, and don’t post comments on how i should be more thankful, blah blah blah, that is not what I mean, I love my job, every single minute of my work.  I mean that I work hard, all day every day to get where I am today, and stay where I am today.   My mother in law says this to me often “don’t you ever stop?”  Nope.  It’s just the way it is when you work at home, and have some goals set out in front of you.

My daughter’s generation has a strong sense of entitlement, as many of you have noticed.  I find it hard to take sometimes – they feel that they are entitled to an Ipad, Iphone, computers, playstations, and cars, apparently, along with their education paid for because they don’t work.  Wow.    This is completely different from my generation.  Did I say Wow?

How does this idea translate into embroidery?  Easily…I see it all the time.  While I understand that embroidery and learning to digitize is a skill, a professional skill that some people have a hard time grasping at first, but those people need to understand that they have some work to do!  And if you want to become a digitizer, GET TO WORK.  Do your homework, do the legwork, take classes, watch every single video that you can find – learn as much as you can ever single day – and put some hard work into your hobby or profession.  Embroidery digitizing is not going to be given to you on a silver platter – here is all of my 15 years experience, and all of my hard work and hours and hours of work, missing my kids, not taking time for myself – but here it is for you, for free.   While I am super happy to help everyone at any time, and I spend hours a day volunteering my time, when I realize that someone has not worked hard, or at all even, to learn the skills needed, i find it hard just to give answers and wait for the next set of questions because they still don’t understand.  To me, I am wasting my time…this person needs to do some work, needs to study, needs to learn, needs to do stitch outs…put some effort in!!  I have encountered a few people here and there that have done all the leg work, home work,and hard work and still don’t get it, and I am happy to take my time and help them out as much as  possible until they get their “ah ha ” moment and all begins to be clear.

That is the idea of the day – work hard for what you want,  work at it, be passionate about it and you will have success in one way or another.  Life is much more satisfying if you work hard for what you want – when you accomplish the goal that you have been working on – your first design, your first ITH project, your first time using your embroidery machine – once you accomplish these tasks properly, with elbow grease, you will be so proud and happy and feel the accomplishment.  It will also empower you to push further, learn more and do more.  Isn’t that great?

Happy Digitizing everyone, and remember to learn something new every day!