Switching Focus

I think I’ve been focusing on the wrong target. I’ve been aiming at the wrong thing.

When I started this website, started writing, creating content and articles, uploading tools and ideas and experiences, starting a podcast, I chartered my efforst in wanting to build something that people would use. A loaner toolbox. A resource. A place for construction engineers to grab something useful.

I thought it would be helpful.

But the more I work at it, the more aware I’ve become of what it takes to build something for the masses. This effort started in 2009. It has attracted a few, for which I’m grateful. But it hasn’t caught on. Just because you put something on a shelf at Target or Walmart doesn’t mean people will buy it. It can sit there, and eventually get thrown into a bin and sent back to the manufacturer because no one wanted it.

Maybe the product wasn’t very good. Maybe the salesmanship for it was poor. Maybe, simply, nobody needed it.

I’m an engineer. I’m not a salesman. I have some entrepreneur in me, and some tech & business gray hair on my head. And, of course, I have a full time job and a family and hobbies.

While it’s a noble pursuit to want to help the world, or narrowed down, the engineering community, it takes A LOT of effort to bring a product to market.

I have two options – Develop a website for a market that is far and wide, twist my efforts and treat it like a business. Or, develop a website that I want to use all the time. MY toolbox. Not a toolbox for everyone else, but a toolbox for MY stuff.

If people want to borrow my tools, what I have here is for everyone. Use whatever you’d like. You don’t have to return anything, a “Thank You” is enough of a gratuity.

But if all I am doing is working in my own, solitary workshop, creating things that I can use, then I will have accomplished something worthwhile. And that’s a good use of my time.