I believe that my life is going to change dramitically. I may be switching careers in order to be able to preserve my body. 15 years of success is enough, and my career can’t be any more allustrious without some even bigger challenges to my body’s (and mind’s) integrity.
What people do not realise about the career of hair dressing is that despite the fact I get to run my hands through beautiful womens’ hair all day, the wear and tear of standing on concrete floors,always having to bend in unnatural ways, having your arms in the air all day, and general repetitive motions kill you. I have discovered that not only a bad bike wreck screwed me up for the bike, but my job is not allowing me to heal properly.
I am thinking of switching to one of several careers:
Loan Officer in mortgage lending. I am a natural salesman, and I enjoy helping people. I already have to deal with people calling me a lot, so this is not a big deal.
Insurance Agent. I must learn the laws and take the test, and it may require me to gather capital to open my own business, which I know how to run one already.
Go for broke and start fabricating things full-time. This will require a substantial investment (like being an Insurance Agent), and probably more education (especially in bike frame building, as my first frame was copied angle-by-angle, each measurement ends up the same from one of my favourite all-time bikes) in materials handling, fabrication, and design, but I do have a bit of a feel for it (as a few of my designs have well over 5,000 miles upon them and some items have held up to several thousand cycles) and could be successful in that. One problem: what to do if a few months go by without sales.
Anyone who has delved into these fields, I would like to hear from you.
I think if you believe enough in yourself and what you are doing whatever you do will be better than a life you are not happy with.
It seems the bike industry is not that great a place to invest in a new careers without the full knowledge and backing to hit it head on. Maybe you couls start working and slowly invest time and money into your bike business whilst gaining the knowledge you need to take a better shot a your passion as it were.
I do believe that when the time is right (some time next year), I will go to the Yamaguchi school of frame building to delve deeply into the geometric and brazing aspects of the frame building. I desperately want to learn how to make steel bikes, which I think is one of the harder things to learn.
I will go to frame building school no matter what profession I go into.I think I could then get a better understanding of more things related to the bike frame building. As I said before- any monkey can lay up carbon fibre, but it takes a genius to know how to devise the proper lay up and design the proper geometry for each person.
Glad to hear you’ve picked the best of the best - I was going to recommend that if you went into the fabrication business, and have been wanting to take his course for some time now. Won’t happen for a while, but it’s on my radar moreso than a Kona slot.
I have ridden a former teammate’s Yamaguchi (which was relabeled another make- hmmm…) right at about the same time that I had my KHS TT bike delivered (which was painted barbeque grille black and relabeled the same make-hmmmm…) and I had regretted getting the KHS; just never got back to Ol’ Yamaguchi Koichi until the internet came to my hutch.
He’s definitely the guy to learn steel from (as that is STILL his primary metal), as well as proper material selection- and I get my very own bunnyman bike made the Yamaguchi Koichi way. He does okay on the geometric end, as well.
I’m 36 and changing jobs in the Marine Corps this year from infantry officer to communications officer. Although there are other larger, and more personal reasons for the change…I’d be lying if I said that the wear and tear on my body was not at least a small part of the consideration.
For me, it will help that I have 10 years of technical electronics experience (also in the Marine Corps) before I became an infantry officer.
Don’t discount the time it will take to become successful in whatever you choose. You’ve spent 15 years becoming however good you have become at the hairdressing biz. Most of those skills are not going to transfer to things like loan officer or insurance agent. You’ll be starting at the bottom…it’ll take a huge dose of humility to stick out the learning curve in order to become good at whatever you choose.
The best thing I can say is…look really deep inside to figure out what it is that you LOVE. For me…I LOVE technical stuff, particularly electronics. I’m really good at it. This sort of stuff comes naturally to me. By all accounts so far, I’ve been a pretty damn good infantry officer. But I know that I’ll be even better as a commo.
I say go for it. Just don’t jump at the first ship that passes now that you’ve come to a decision. Make sure its the right job for the right reasons.
I should add that, after reading your posts for several years…that I see you fitting into the fab biz somewhere. You seem to really enjoy it, even if your skills may be rudimentary at the moment. You might consider ways to work in the biz, getting some good mentorship, while working for others. As I said in the previous post…humility is going to be a huge piece of your decision to change. Humility with resolve, that is. You’ll have to have resolve when things don’t go smoothly and folks around you are screaming that you’ve made a huge mistake…Humility will be required when some 20 year old kid grabs the mold and says “MOVE” when you’ve screwed something up…
Changing careers is tough. I should know, since I am almost and expert at it from having changed mine many a time. I did the mortgage thing for several years, and I worked in different capacitites as a broker, loan officer, area manager, etc…Its not for everyone, but I wanted to throw out a unique opportunity to you that you may not have considered.
If you go the mortgage route, just try it while you keep your other clients going too. You may want to peel off a few of your clients to make time for the mortgage stuff, but it will allow you to transition into it without a loss of income. If you decide you want to devote all of your time to mortgages, you can, or you can continue to do it on the side. Either way, you will reduce the time that you are on your feet with your hands in the air. The best mortgage professionals have schedules that they keep that they let their customers know about. You could see salon customers in the morning and then do mortgages until the close of business and then see some more salon clients at the end of the day.
Anyway, it works for me. I am a firefighter now, but I will do a few mortgages on the side if someone I know needs help. Good luck, and if you have any questions, PM me.
I realise that in some ways, the skills I have mastered ion the technical side of hairdressing will NOT transfer, but the people skills I have will. (I know that it does not seem like I have ANY judging from my posts)
I have battled with this decision for about ten years. I ended up going back and loving hairdressing each time. But a good part of the “now or never!” theme is that changes where I am working will force me out of where I am now, and I cannot go to another salon and provide the same service that I do now, and I am unwilling to try to go it on my own. My love for the profession would go to ZERO if I did that.
I will say that though it may seem like I am capable of only rash decisions, I am very much a thinker and measurer when it comes down to it. I know it will be the right decision as I will think of every angle.
Yeah, I have been thinking the same thing. I almost went to one of the first FIST classes, but a crappy year financially kinda threw that out of the window.
I love getting more and more knowlege, even when I tend to spout off like I am some sort of expert (which I readilly admit that I am not), and the fabrication seems like a good fit. I think I may just do some frame building on the side (after getting educated on it), as this would be something quite fitting for me to do, even if it looks like the steel bike frame business is dying a slow death (which I think it WILL enjoy a revival; just S2 tubing came at a rotten time for steel bikes).
Unless I could find a bike business who would gladly take on an older apprentice, it looks like I would be going it alone (albeit armed with a bit more education).
How about being a Hair Shaman.
Kinda like what you did…but, don’t cut and style anymore.
Just tell clients about their inner hair, how to find one’s self and one’s center by understanding that hair is the portal to the soul.
You can practice like a shrink…couch and all.
Hey if this works…its on me,
Consider it an early Easter present.
Sounds like you obviously have a lot of experience in the hair-doing world…why not
a)open your own salon and just be a manager of others…do yoga, pilates and massage classes…
b)be a sales person or work in marketing for a hair products company…surely you’ve made some contacts over the years and know what does and doesn’t work.
…15 years is a lot of experience in any profession - why not leverage that into somehting more suitable for your body now?
I have thought of those things, but working Saturday over 15 years has burnt me out. Repping could be okay, but I just think it’s time to move on. Owning a salon would put me in my grave at an earler age than I wish; I have no patience for the vast majority of who goes into this industry. I am surprised that I lasted as long as I did.
