Saturday, January 4, 2014

In It For the Long Haul

I've been working on two projects recently, a 57 Ford Custom 300 and a 68 Mustang, both of them are huge projects.  Lots of bodywork on both of them, one is a major conversion, lots of scratch building on both of them.  Both of them are really great and fun projects and I'm very excited to get them done.  I'm also getting sick of fooling with them.  It seems like everything is a problem, nothing just "fits" like I want it to.  It begins to wear on a person to point where I start to want to take short cuts just to be finished.  Not the best attitude to complete a project and have it turn out well.
How does a person get a project like this done without just putting it back in the box and giving up?  Perseverance. There's a line in the movie "The Outlaw Josey Wales" that fits this situation, "Endeavor to Persevere."  To try hard to continue in the face of difficulty, that what it says.  There's another quote I like that says, " Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up" Thomas Edison said that.  He made at least 1000 attempts at making a light bulb before he was successful.  If he can continue for 1000 times, I can get through this.  A buddy of mine spent a year building one car, 365 days on the same model.  I see guys on the internet doing amazing things and it takes them a long time to complete, they endeavor to persevere.  This happens to lots of us, we give up just before we are successful, the kit goes back in the box or gets sold at a swap meet or we compromise the level of detail just to get it done.  We think it will be OK and no one will notice.  Well, somebody will notice; you will.
I have had a few kits go back in the box to finish later and two I sold half done at swap meets and one I smashed against the wall in frustration.  After the "incident" with the wall I vowed to never let a kit get the best of me.  I decided to finish all the ones I start and do it in a reasonable amount of time.  I don't want a bunch of half done kits littering up my basement and I buy them to build, not to take up space.  It's my hobby, a way to pass time and enjoy myself, I enjoy building, competing, and I enjoy the finished product of my labors.  Sometimes, that involved working through a little slump, or "Endeavoring to Persevere."

No comments:

Post a Comment