Valuing ourselves

[Roger Jolly]

Excellent post Dave, it needed to be said.

The Skull and cross bones.


At 10:14 AM 2/13/2008, you wrote:
>I've been an acolyte of Ed Foote in the business realm for about 10 years 
>because he KNOWS what he's worth, and raises his rates EVERY SINGLE TIME 
>he needs to, usually every 18 months. He's been in the top 1/2 of 1% of 
>earners in this craft for 30 years.
>
>Let me ask you some questions:
>
>1. Are you proud of your craft?
>
>2. Do you think it takes as much focus and skill to function in the high 
>end of the pianotech world
>as it does to function as a technician in the high end of home/small 
>business computers?
>
>3. Do you think you're going to live forever?
>
>4. Do you want to work with and deal with a**h**les on a daily basis?
>
>If you sincerely and truthfully answered yes, yes, no, and no, then
>
>GO TO THE HIGH END AND STAY THERE. Really. Quit bitching and complaining 
>about competition and taxes and driving and cheap clients, and not enough 
>money to go to conventions. If you're a highly trained, honest, 
>professional craftsperson and you're not making $2,000 a week, it's 
>you---you have a diminished perception of yourself and your worth, and 
>other people are picking up on and responding to that. It's a classic 
>problem in our craft. STAND UP. Look at things in the cold light of day. 
>Do you WANT to work on old uprights that are falling apart owned by people 
>that are cheap and untrusting? I don't want to work on a nasty piano even 
>if it's owned by the Dalai Lama. I want to work on good, clean pianos 
>owned by people and venues that treat me well and pay me what I ask for
>gladly and eagerly---because I take the work seriously, make a radical 
>positive change in the way their instrument sound and feels, and they 
>truly love and honor and respect that. It's important to them, for a 
>myriad of reasons.
>
>Two other bitches, as long as I'm ranting.
>
>1. DO NOT compare me to a plumber. My work is way, way different than 
>making a turd go through a pipe.
>
>2. DO NOT complain about working on dog-ass pianos. If you stick a pin in 
>your house on a map, and draw a circle around it with a 50-mile radius, I 
>guarantee that unless you live in the wilderness, there's a thousand good 
>pianos (conservatively) in that circle waiting for your magic touch. There 
>are no excuses; just reasons why you don't succeed. How you see yourself, 
>how you FEEL on the inside, has everything to do with how you're treated 
>on the outside.
>
>End of mad soliloquy. Out of breath. Must.....rest........
>
>David Andersen
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