A whack on the side of the head

Monday, March 05, 2007 Filed in: Blog stuff, Gunsmithing
Every so often I'll come up with an idea that makes absolutely no sense, and I'm not smart enough to see it.

The other day a client was kind enough to send me an email exclaiming his delight with the work I'd done for him. In it, he said that he owned another example of the same model which he'd had tuned by a very famous gunsmith. (He went so far as to name the other gunsmith, and the word "famous" is most assuredly proper.) After directly comparing the two guns, his opinion was that my work was superior in every way to the other guy's!

Everyone like those kinds of ego strokes, and I'm no different. Since I'm preparing a new customer testimonial section for the website, I wanted to use his quote. No problem, I'll just get permission and I'm good to go!

A moral dilemma immediately presented itself: I actually entertained the idea of publishing the quote unedited, leaving in the name of the famous gunsmith. After all, my flawed reasoning went, at least one other gunsmith does it, so why shouldn't I cash in on the notoriety too? Why should I hide my light in an ammo can?

Luckily I decided to run this idea past my "alter ego" - a person I trust to give me unbiased, unvarnished opinions. This person is famous in the industry as well, and anyone who has been around the shooting game for any length of time would recognize the name. (I won't tell you who it is, because I don't have permission and even if I did, I wouldn't want to ruin a good friendship.)

We exchanged emails, wherein I expressed my reluctance to name the gunsmith in question, but also my concern that I was passing up a grand promotional opportunity. I had the imaginary angel on one shoulder telling me not to, but a little devil on my other shoulder (who, as I mentioned in the email, sounded like a cross between Jackie Mason and Sam Kinison) was telling me to give in to the temptation. What to do? What to do?

Luckily my friend had no compunction in telling me that I was full of it. Well, actually, it wasn't that harsh, but it did bring me back to the proper frame of mind. The recommendation was to listen to my conscience, because it's there for a reason, and that I should "go to [my] strengths, not their weaknesses." How come I never say such profound things?

It's good advice that I plan to take. Whew - that was close!

-=[ Grant ]=-
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