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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hi Paul,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I'll have you know I got a failing grade on a
speech I made in college. It was supposed to be a persuasive speech and I
talked about the importance of learning a foreign language (Hmm, another study
at home thing that is hard to imagine being successful without live
tutoring...). What was my professor's reason for the failing
grade? I hadn't said, "You can make a lot of money if you do
this." !!! Silly me, I was promoting expanding horizons,
understanding other cultures, world peace, etc... :-)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Well...I'm not opposed to making money! I
like it and I'm very good at spending it. And, I make
plenty cleaning up after tuners who "aren't prepared." It's too bad for my
customers that they have to pay twice (or more) for one service. I
know a lot of successful technicians who have done the correspondence course
thing--they also had excellent tutors and spent a lot of time with
them.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I went to a now-defunct school for piano tuning and
repair. Besides learning to tune aurally, the most important thing my
teacher drilled into me while giving instruction, was that there could be better
ways to do "whatever" and it's up to you to find them. No matter what
our training, there's always more to learn. It's hard to think of a field
where that's not true. </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Best,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Barbara Richmond, RPT</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>always learning near Peoria,
Illinois</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=paul@bruesch.net href="mailto:paul@bruesch.net">paul bruesch</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org
href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">Pianotech List</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, August 04, 2007 9:37
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Re:The Potter Dilemma, Randy
not Harry</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Interesting, Barbara... I had just been thinking about exactly
this, but from a very different perspective. When I had gotten thoroughly
frustrated in my attempts to find meaningful employment in Corporate America
[after having been eliminated in a significant downsizing effort which ended a
mostly enjoyable 15-year tenure at a Large Company which now no longer
exists,] I decided to investigate the viability of Piano Technology.
<BR><BR>The first words out of the instructor at the very first (local) school
I contacted were "Did you look at my website?" and the second words were "You
can make a lot of money in piano technology." <BR><BR>The instructor at
the second (not local) school I contacted said "I'm not sure what kind of
money you're accustomed to making, but you'll be able to afford to..."
<BR><BR>At that point, and still, I am certainly interested in making a decent
living, but whether I make the money I was making as a systems programmer
supporting large-corporation infrastructure software is immaterial to me.
<BR><BR>The instructors' comments about money were completely unsolicited and
actually unwelcome and off-putting. I wanted to learn a trade that would be
rewarding to me and which would put my considerable mechanical ability and
musical interests to good use. Money obviously has some bearing, but
large quantities are no longer important to me 'cuz I've decided that it's
impossible to get to the point of having "too much," so I'll settle for
"enough to feed myself and my kids." <BR><BR>Paul Bruesch<BR>Stillwater,
MN<BR><BR>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I hope that when people are thinking
about learning this trade, they're just not thinking, "I can make this
amount of money in such and such time." There is something to actually
being prepared to give good service, too.</FONT></DIV>
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