End of Day Treasures

Artisans and money

Last night husband came across Joseph W. Rollings web site and ordered his book entitled “Artisans and Money”.  Since he is selling the book himself here and does not have an affiliate program, I am not making any money from this article but I do think it is worth bringing to your attention.  Rollings has accomplished just what I hope to help others do though this blog.  Kudos to you Mr. Rollings!

In his own words, Rollings book is about:

Earning a nice living as an artisan

This is a book about money, artisans, and how to best put the two together in the first years of the twenty-first century. Artisans are defined as skilled craftsmen in the dictionary, and as such should have little trouble earning a proper living. In my experience, though, they have a great deal of trouble, and the level of skill they have in their selected fields of work seldom accurately reflects the level of their income. The reasons for this are many, but based on only a few basic flaws in thinking and behavior. I am very familiar with these flaws, because I began my life’s work as an artisan with every one of them firmly entrenched in every moment of my everyday life. I spent years blaming everyone in the country except myself, scarcely making ends meet.

As I slowly (and mostly accidentally) began discovering the truths found in this book, my income started to increase. I now make more money than I ever assumed I would, own equipment I always assumed would never be mine, work 5 day weeks instead of seven, six hour days instead of twelve, and love my life. I buy new vehicles every few years. I replace tires with new ones before the tread is all gone. My wife does not bite her lip and cross her fingers when she throws down a credit card or writes a check at the grocery store or the doctor’s office.

We have raised five daughters using only the income from our business. We will semi-retire in four years, at age 60. . Although this may not define success for many, it does for us, and considering that our net worth hovered near zero only a dozen years ago, I’ll not apologize for taking a bit of modest pride in what we’ve accomplished.

Others have done much better because they “wised up” sooner. The majority of artisans have done worse, because they never did wise up.

Even better, unlike the majority of American workers, I have no fear of waking up one morning without an income. To quote the old country song, “as long as these two hands are fit to use”…..I can always make a living for my family, dealing only with those folks I want to deal with, doing the work I want to do, working when I want to work, living where I want to live. I believe that life is best lived without fear, and under the presumption that it is good, and that such a life makes a better person of anyone……..I wish such a life to all artisans everywhere……..

Joe Rollings…October 26, 2003. ARTISANS AND MONEY

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