Some may have noticed my conspicuous absence around here of late. Well folks...things be a changing. I am still selling flashlights through OneStopThrowShop.com and plan to do so for the foreseeable future. However the future plans are different than they once were. For years my goal was to be able to get to the point where I could actually sell lights wholesale to a dealer and still make money. My dreams of doing such were shattered early on when I realized I couldn't even make money selling direct. Slowly but surely over the years I have gotten closer and closer to that goal. This year was the first time I have ever really gotten there. I have had many many requests over the years from various dealers to carry my stuff but either I was not able to produce enough or there simply was no margin to allow the dealer to make any money. As in, if I came down on the price to allow the dealer to make anything I would be losing money. But here I was with a new product that I was very excited about(REV Captor) and I had the ability to get it into a dealer's hand and not lose money. I was seriously excited about the potential of this light. It was something completely new in the marketplace. I realized it was a bit of a departure from the throw lights I have always done but I expected everyone to truly appreciate the innovation and practicality of this light. I went out and bought a new, rather expensive camera, just so I could better show the capabilities of this new light and take better video. As it would happen this action would be far more life changing than simply getting better pictures and video.
So I released the Captor earlier this year and I have to say that the response didn't live up to my expectations. I did get some very good feedback from owners but getting people to buy it in the first place proved to be far more difficult than I expected. That really is not what bothered me the most. I suppose it is just the nature of some people to be unthoughtful and unloving but there were people, mostly on another budget forum, that were rather disparaging towards me and my new light. Just typing these words now gives me a pit in my stomach thinking about it. You see I have spent my life trying to make other people happy. I enjoy doing things for other people to bring enjoyment into their life and have since I was a kid. I have loved doing flashlights all these years because it gives me an opportunity to engage my artistic and engineering talents while at the same time bringing joy to people. It is why I have continued to do so despite losses for all but one year. Because I love the work and I love you. The criticism I received made me begin to question why I am working so hard for people. Why I am the one left hanging with a debt load for people who don't really care for me in return. I know that is not the case with everyone of you as many of you have been very loyal over the years. The vast majority though have the "what have you done for me lately attitude". The vast majority don't care how hard it is to do what I do. They don't care what pressure is put on my family in the process. And to a great extent I can understand that. But in the end if I am doing what I do out of a love of giving and pleasing and instead the response from people is one of nastiness as I saw on BLF then what reason is there left for me to continue on with this? I am in roughly $50,000 debt in the company. $50,000!!! I haven't been paid a real salary in over 6 years folks! I know I shouldn't allow the nastiness of some to affect me as much as it has but it has. It just has.
What used to be a love of everything flashlights and staying up late to research and develop new processes and methods and products turned into a chore. Every time I'd think about doing something flashlight related I'd get an uncontrollable sickness in my stomach. This clearly is no way to live.
As a lot of you know Mandy has been my loyal sidekick for 6 years or so. She has probably not gotten enough recognition for the work she has done. She is the one who has done almost all the production work. I'd research, develop, and setup production but it was her actually making them. In the early days especially we were doing things that were mind-bogglingly complicated and she could pull off what I showed her. I didn't really appreciate how good she was until I hired someone else and tried to train them. It seems some things you just have to be born with. Well a couple months ago she came up to me and told me that she has some personal goals she'd like to accomplish. To do so she wanted to get some training in a more "normal" job so that it would be easier to find a job when relocating to a new area. So I lost my dear sister as a workmate. She has been doing 80-90% of the production work. Imagine 80-90% of Apple's workforce walking out on them. This is big. Since I have become so aware how hard it can be to find such a gem as I had in my sister I can't say I am too keen to try and replace her. In fact I am not even going to try. I haven't the money nor the desire to try and replace her. Training someone to replace her would cost thousands of dollars in downtime training and overseeing as well as in botched product. Just the nature of bringing someone on. I don't have the resources to do that. So the question became, "where do I go from here?".
Remember that camera I said I bought for the Captor project? Well as I said that purchase turned out to be life altering. It was a pretty good camera. Far better and far more expensive than I really wanted to purchase but the cheapest I could find in my area with a mic in port for video. Well after the Captor shoot I decided to do some family photos. Turns out I was actually decent at it and found it to be enjoyable. So I purchased some more equipment to be able to get some more professional portraits of my whole family. I had so much fun doing it I decided to take it up a notch. Understand I am a somewhat obsessive and passionate person. It is what made me so good with flashlights. Anyway, I began consuming massive quantities of information on all aspects of photography. Delving deep into photographic theory and the human psyche. How we perceive images and why. I find it endlessly fascinating. Well I began to realize how much fun I was having with photography and how little of it I was getting out of the flashlights. When Mandy approached me about her goals it seemed things were falling into place. But I have been struggling to imagine a life where flashlights do not have a place.
So what do I do? Do I drop flashlights altogether and become a photographer?
Well I began to really examine what I want to do. I still love flashlights. I still have many loyal customers. And I still have a bunch of great ideas for unique products moving forward. I decided that maybe where I went wrong was trying to increase production numbers and focusing too much on pleasing too many people. I began to enter a market segment with people who don't care about craftsmanship. Who don't care about provenance. Who don't care for anyone but themselves. So the solution going forward will be returning to my roots to some degree. Even higher end and more unique products. Low production numbers but even crazier levels of performance. This is what I did when I started. The thing I messed up in the beginning was not charging for the work I did. Every light I sold I lost money. For years. So I will need to charge for the work I do. I have some lights that were completed by Mandy before she left and those will be going up soon. It is a successor to the TN31mb. The big question is what is going to happen with the OMG Lumens stuff. I have a few more DEFT-X that will be released. There is a product that I have been working on for well over a year now trying to develop a novel beam changing mechanism. Whether that development will finish in time for me to release under my current contract with Wavien I don't know. Not sure where things are headed. But regardless there will be new lights of some kind moving forward. Just not as many.
For those who would like to see my photography so far I thought I'd post a few for you to see. If you want to see some more of my work go here. http://mjfineartphotography.smugmug.com/browse
This first one is a self portrait.
This is my beautiful sister Mandy who has worked so hard for you all these years.
This is one of my beautiful wife. Without her none of my accomplishments with flashlights would have been possible.
This is one I did of my sweet daughter.
So I released the Captor earlier this year and I have to say that the response didn't live up to my expectations. I did get some very good feedback from owners but getting people to buy it in the first place proved to be far more difficult than I expected. That really is not what bothered me the most. I suppose it is just the nature of some people to be unthoughtful and unloving but there were people, mostly on another budget forum, that were rather disparaging towards me and my new light. Just typing these words now gives me a pit in my stomach thinking about it. You see I have spent my life trying to make other people happy. I enjoy doing things for other people to bring enjoyment into their life and have since I was a kid. I have loved doing flashlights all these years because it gives me an opportunity to engage my artistic and engineering talents while at the same time bringing joy to people. It is why I have continued to do so despite losses for all but one year. Because I love the work and I love you. The criticism I received made me begin to question why I am working so hard for people. Why I am the one left hanging with a debt load for people who don't really care for me in return. I know that is not the case with everyone of you as many of you have been very loyal over the years. The vast majority though have the "what have you done for me lately attitude". The vast majority don't care how hard it is to do what I do. They don't care what pressure is put on my family in the process. And to a great extent I can understand that. But in the end if I am doing what I do out of a love of giving and pleasing and instead the response from people is one of nastiness as I saw on BLF then what reason is there left for me to continue on with this? I am in roughly $50,000 debt in the company. $50,000!!! I haven't been paid a real salary in over 6 years folks! I know I shouldn't allow the nastiness of some to affect me as much as it has but it has. It just has.
What used to be a love of everything flashlights and staying up late to research and develop new processes and methods and products turned into a chore. Every time I'd think about doing something flashlight related I'd get an uncontrollable sickness in my stomach. This clearly is no way to live.
As a lot of you know Mandy has been my loyal sidekick for 6 years or so. She has probably not gotten enough recognition for the work she has done. She is the one who has done almost all the production work. I'd research, develop, and setup production but it was her actually making them. In the early days especially we were doing things that were mind-bogglingly complicated and she could pull off what I showed her. I didn't really appreciate how good she was until I hired someone else and tried to train them. It seems some things you just have to be born with. Well a couple months ago she came up to me and told me that she has some personal goals she'd like to accomplish. To do so she wanted to get some training in a more "normal" job so that it would be easier to find a job when relocating to a new area. So I lost my dear sister as a workmate. She has been doing 80-90% of the production work. Imagine 80-90% of Apple's workforce walking out on them. This is big. Since I have become so aware how hard it can be to find such a gem as I had in my sister I can't say I am too keen to try and replace her. In fact I am not even going to try. I haven't the money nor the desire to try and replace her. Training someone to replace her would cost thousands of dollars in downtime training and overseeing as well as in botched product. Just the nature of bringing someone on. I don't have the resources to do that. So the question became, "where do I go from here?".
Remember that camera I said I bought for the Captor project? Well as I said that purchase turned out to be life altering. It was a pretty good camera. Far better and far more expensive than I really wanted to purchase but the cheapest I could find in my area with a mic in port for video. Well after the Captor shoot I decided to do some family photos. Turns out I was actually decent at it and found it to be enjoyable. So I purchased some more equipment to be able to get some more professional portraits of my whole family. I had so much fun doing it I decided to take it up a notch. Understand I am a somewhat obsessive and passionate person. It is what made me so good with flashlights. Anyway, I began consuming massive quantities of information on all aspects of photography. Delving deep into photographic theory and the human psyche. How we perceive images and why. I find it endlessly fascinating. Well I began to realize how much fun I was having with photography and how little of it I was getting out of the flashlights. When Mandy approached me about her goals it seemed things were falling into place. But I have been struggling to imagine a life where flashlights do not have a place.
So what do I do? Do I drop flashlights altogether and become a photographer?
Well I began to really examine what I want to do. I still love flashlights. I still have many loyal customers. And I still have a bunch of great ideas for unique products moving forward. I decided that maybe where I went wrong was trying to increase production numbers and focusing too much on pleasing too many people. I began to enter a market segment with people who don't care about craftsmanship. Who don't care about provenance. Who don't care for anyone but themselves. So the solution going forward will be returning to my roots to some degree. Even higher end and more unique products. Low production numbers but even crazier levels of performance. This is what I did when I started. The thing I messed up in the beginning was not charging for the work I did. Every light I sold I lost money. For years. So I will need to charge for the work I do. I have some lights that were completed by Mandy before she left and those will be going up soon. It is a successor to the TN31mb. The big question is what is going to happen with the OMG Lumens stuff. I have a few more DEFT-X that will be released. There is a product that I have been working on for well over a year now trying to develop a novel beam changing mechanism. Whether that development will finish in time for me to release under my current contract with Wavien I don't know. Not sure where things are headed. But regardless there will be new lights of some kind moving forward. Just not as many.
For those who would like to see my photography so far I thought I'd post a few for you to see. If you want to see some more of my work go here. http://mjfineartphotography.smugmug.com/browse
This first one is a self portrait.
This is my beautiful sister Mandy who has worked so hard for you all these years.
This is one of my beautiful wife. Without her none of my accomplishments with flashlights would have been possible.
This is one I did of my sweet daughter.