How do you measure success?

I have spent many hours pondering the question, what is success, and by what yardstick does one measure success? I have come to the conclusion that success has a different meaning for different people.

Some measure success by money, but unless success brings one joy and satisfaction, is it really success? One can be successful in terms of money, but an absolute failure in terms of everything else. A relationship with a spouse or children, for example.

Friends who recently returned from Africa, after several years in the Peace Corps, told me, there are people who live in mud huts, existing on a handful of rice a day, and yet are basically happy and content with their lives.

People do not know they are poor unless they have contact with wealth, and can see others who have more than they do. It would be hard to live in a mud hut in America and have the degree of contentment of someone living in remote parts of Africa, for example.

Success is meeting your expectations. If your expectations are a handful of rice a day, and that is what you get. You are successful, and you are content. If you have a little chicken to go with your rice, you have exceeded expectations and you are even happier.

Success can be fleeting, but that is alright, there are always other successes that follow. I think I can honestly say I was a successful framebuilder. I became a good framebuilder because I built a lot of frames, and repetition is the key to success with any skill.

There was a time when I made a lot of money as a framebuilder, but the success was fleeting. Market trends and consumer tastes changed. I could have changed too, but I didn’t and so moved on and set other goals. That doesn’t make me any less successful as a framebuilder now, than the day I left the business.

This is why I believe one cannot quantify success in terms of money only. To me success is measured in satisfaction. Knowing that people are still riding bikes I built back in the 1980s, and enjoy doing so, brings immense satisfaction.

After I left the bike business, I wrote a successful novel. My intentions were to write a best-selling novel, but I settled for satisfaction once more.

Without exception, everyone who reads my novel Prodigal Child, raves about it. That is highly satisfying. The book was never a bestseller, because relatively few people know of it. It was never reviewed in the New York Times or blessed by Oprah Winfrey.

This blog too is no small success. Started in 2005, coming up 12 years, draws readers from all over the world. It gets recognition from other quarters too, recently listed in the Top 15 Cycling Blogs by Test Facts.  (See this and other awards in the top right column of this page.)

Success is recognizing the small or partial successes, because collectively they too bring joy, and satisfaction. The key is to have a few more successes than failures in life, and you are always ahead of the game. Occasionally there will be a little chicken to go with your rice.

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Tiny Ripples on the Pond of Life

A line in my song “Prodigal Child” goes:

“I used to lie in the long grass and watch the clouds go by, as a child my world was happy, only people made me cry.”

Sadly today it is still people who make me cry. I will go so far as to say there is not a single thing wrong with this world today if it were not for people.... Or to be more precise, people misbehaving.

Hardly a week goes by that there is not some act of terrorism somewhere. I can handle the occasional natural disaster, but I can’t understand why people can’t behave properly and not kill other people. It makes me sad… It makes me cry.

It seems to me the biggest drive in life is to affect the lives of others. We can do this in a positive way or we can do it in a negative way. Unfortunately many people do not figure this out.

Young people especially. Bullying, vandalism, destroying things, which if taken to extremes includes killing people. All effect the lives of others in a negative way. Events sometimes so horrendous they affect a whole nation, and even the World beyond.

If any good is to come from these insane acts, it can only be that we need to realize and teach our children that this urge to affect the lives of others is natural.

It takes almost no thinking or effort to do this in a negative way, when with a small conscious effort it can be quite easy to do so in a positive way.

Who knows what affect a simple smile, a kind word or action can have on the rest of the world.

For every action there is a reaction. Actions both good and bad have a ripple effect, cause a chain reaction so to speak.

Like a ripple, the affect has most of its power felt by those close to its source, further out the ripple has less affect. 

However, ripples can start small, cause others to join in, and they can gain energy and travel far.  A harsh word or unkind act can ruin someone’s day and may push someone who is unstable enough over the edge that they might just kill someone.

Giving the finger to a fellow traveler on the highway may cause that person to drive angrily and aggressively, resulting a crash that kills someone. On the other hand a small ripple started by a simple smile, if joined by enough other small ripples can form a large wave that travels far, and affects a lot of people.

Today I will try not to let the rudeness and negative acts of others affect me. If it stops with me, at least I am not passing it on where it might gain momentum. I will try to start my own tiny ripples, with positive thoughts and actions. Who knows, it may just gather momentum, travel round the world and come right back to me.

How do you deal with negativity?

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In the Dumpster of Life

People email me with all kinds of questions about bikes and I have to admit I know a lot, but not everything.

Someone might find a frame in the dumpster and email me pictures asking if I know what it is.

I may know, I may not, I may offer an educated guess.

When looking for answers, concentrate on what you already know, not on what you don’t know. When you pull a frame from the dumpster look at the dropouts. Are they forged steel like Campagnolo? If so, it is probably a quality frame. If the dropouts are stamped from sheet steel, it is of lesser quality.

The exception would be, if it were an antique, pre dating forged dropouts. (1950s and earlier.) Then you look at the quality of the lug work, etc. You can ask an expert who will give you an educated guess, an opinion.

Nine times out of ten, it is nothing of value, which is why it was in the dumpster to begin with. If a person really needs another beater bike, then build it up and ride it, and enjoy it. Alternatively, give it to someone who needs it more than you do, or throw it back in the dumpster and forget about it.

In life too, it is more important where life's journey has taken us, rather than the point we started. In fact once we have left that point it is of little significance. More important is the direction we continue to steer ourselves on the road of life.

I once knew a young man who didn’t know who his father was, and was a basket case as a result. His mother wouldn’t tell him and a possible reason was that he was the result of some drunken one night stand and she didn’t know who the father was.

If this was the case then honesty with her son might have been the better course, although not necessarily. Had she been honest, he may have been even more troubled, because now he would know that he could never find the answer. Perhaps that knowledge would have alienated him from the one person who truly loved him, his mother. 

Did he really need to know where he came from? He was here on this planet, he was healthy, fit, intelligent, tall, good looking. He had a hell of a lot going for him. Instead, he was a failure in life, and blamed it all on the fact that he didn’t know who his father was.

He would have done better had he concentrated on what he knew. He had a mother who loved him, he had a good education, etc. etc. Instead he was obsessed by the unknown.

My father was the parent from hell, I have written about him here and elsewhere. I turned out all right in spite of this, would I have turned out any better or worse if I had not known who my father was?

Some of us are born more privileged than others, our country of birth for a start. But that is like the frame we find in the dumpster. It might be a Charlton or a Colnago, a Huffy or a Hetchins. Build any of them into a bike and they will get you from A to B. Make do with what you have.

Knowledge is a wonderful thing, but there will always be more questions than answers, some knowledge we seek just for the sake of it. Having certain knowledge does not always improve the quality of our life. 

In the “dumpster” of life, we will find many things, some treasures, some trash. We take what we can use, the rest we discard. Some things we find may appear to be worthless but turn out to be treasures, and vice-versa. 

Sometimes we think we have found treasure. We find a job or a relationship and become very excited, only to find later we should have left it in the dumpster.

Footnote: This article was previously used, but I recycled it, edited and reworked it. In other words I pulled it from my dumpster of old posts, because it was worth another look.

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Heathen Thoughts, and Whirled Peas

I do not subscribe to any particular religion but I am definitely not an atheist. I am more a devout Heathen.

In my book heathen is not a bad word, and heathens are not necessarily bad people, in the same way atheists are not automatically bad people.

Religion does not own the sole rights to morality, but unfortunately many followers of religions think they do. 

The Native Americans were called heathens by the early European settlers, but after making friends with several Native Americans, and studying their beliefs, from what I have learned, those heathens were probably closer to their Maker than many of the early white settlers.

I find it very interesting that the spiritual beliefs of the Native American have a common thread with the Australian Aborigine, with the Celtic and ancient British people, and those of primitive tribes that exist today in various parts of the world.

Their beliefs are all closely tied with nature and they all see themselves as a part of nature rather than separate from it, or somehow above it. I find it even more amazing when I consider that these many and various cultures existed at different times in history, in different parts of the globe, and many do not have a written language.

They obviously did not learn their beliefs from other cultures. These beliefs are intuitive rather than learned, in the same way a swallow or a salmon are not taught how to find their way back to the place of their birth, but travel by instinct.

What sold me on intuition was the realization that followed correctly, intuition cannot lie.

I think the problem humankind has, is that he is too intelligent for his own good. He thinks too much and reads too much second hand information, (Please include this.) rather than following his own intuition.

I find there is so much psycho-babble on the whole subject of spirituality, that it has become almost a new religion. (Or perhaps a New Age Religion.) People quote lines from various books, like quoting text from the Bible.

I have never had the desire to convert to a different religion. I look at another country that is predominantly of a different faith, and I ask myself. Do the people of that country have any less day-to-day problems than we do? Are they happier or more content with their lives? I can't see a huge difference, so I ask myself why bother swapping one set of rules to live by, for another.

I believe this much: There is one creative source in this Universe. When I see images from Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries on TV, I see palm trees. They look exactly the same as palm trees right here in South Carolina, so I find it logical to believe they came from the same source. I ask myself why people are killing each other over a different set of religious beliefs.

The atheist will say, “Prove to me there is a God.” I cannot, so will not even try. My intuition tells me to concentrate on things I do know, rather than look for answers to things I will never know. I believe in life. I know there is life, because I have life. I see little squirrels and birds outside my window as I write this. They also have life, along with all the trees and other plants I see.

But what is life? I cannot see it or touch it. Life is anything that dies when you stomp on it. Life is what keeps meat fresh without refrigeration. Because once life leaves a body, it will start to rot and decay, and man with all his cleverness and knowledge cannot reverse that and bring something back to life. So I believe in Life, and whatever It is that sustains life. (Note that “It” is capitalized.)

This heathen will not be in church on Sunday, I will be out riding my bike. My bike is a machine that becomes an extension of my body, and while I am riding, I am definitely connected to the road I am riding on. I am connected to the terrain, the wind and the elements. If everything I can see, smell, and touch came from one creative source, then just maybe I will connect with this same creative source. My Maker if you will.

I am not trying to convert anyone to a different belief for this simple reason. The beliefs I have are what was left when I dropped other beliefs that seemed illogical, and allowed my intuition to take over. Neither I nor anyone else have control over another's intuition, so I cannot convert or teach anyone anything.

So why am I even writing this. It is actually a re-write from something I wrote a few years ago. Writing my thoughts down, causes me to reaffirm and even rethink my beliefs. It keeps me on track. Hopefully it will entertain others, and give them food for their own thoughts, and fire up their own intuition.

A friend recently told me she had marched for Peace in the 1960s and had always dreamed of World Peace in her lifetime. Now she had come to the sad realization that she would not see her dream materialize. In fact the world seemed even further from that dream.

I try to live my life by two simple rules. 1.) I try not to hurt others, by thought, word or deed. 2.) I take responsibility for my own happiness.

This much I know. If the whole world stopped arguing whether there is a God or not. Even worse, fighting and killing over different versions of their God. If everyone lived by those two simple and easy to follow rules, there would be World Peace. No one would ever again get hurt and everyone would be happy.

Utopia maybe, but it is this Heathen’s wish for the New Year and the future even if I will never live to see it.

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The March of the Machines

Just about any manufactured item can be described as Functional Art. Designed not only to do what it is supposed to do, but to look appealing also.

If you are choosing between two similar priced items of similar quality, you are most likely going to pick the one that looks cool, all other things being equal.

When I built bicycle frames in England during the 1970s my customers were almost exclusively racing cyclists. They bought my bikes mainly because they rode and handled well, and were reasonably priced. A few file marks showing under the paint showed it was a handmade item.

On moving to the US in 1979 I saw that American framebuilders paid a great deal of attention to detail and paint finish of the product, because their customers were swayed by aesthetics as much as what was beneath the paint.

However, aesthetics and function must go hand in hand, hence the term Functional Art. If someone made a musical instrument that looked beautiful but sounded awful, what use would it be apart from something to hang on the wall and look at? The beauty of a well-crafted bicycle is in the way it rides and handles.

How did these qualities get into the bicycle frame other than through the builder? Through design and skill, there is a part of the builder in every frame he makes. Also when he practices a skill long enough it becomes second nature, automatic without conscious thought.

This is not a new notion, the Native American called this “Hand Magic.” Nature bringing something into creation through the artist’s hands. When an ant colony builds an ant hill, is this any different from man building his cities and roadways? Just on a different scale.

The Native American sees mankind as part of Nature, not separate from it. There is nothing in Nature that is not beautiful, the only ugliness is manmade.

Man builds a barn in a field and paints it red. It is an eyesore, a blight on the environment. Given time the barn becomes derelict. Nature takes over and the barn becomes a thing of beauty. Photographers come to photograph it, artists come to capture it on canvas.

If the artist is connected to the creative source in the first place then his creation will be beautiful to begin with. It is not even necessary for the artist to be aware of this. Had anyone put forward this point of view to me some thirty years ago, I would have said they were full of crap.

It was only towards the end of my framebuilding career in the early 1990s did I realize that all creativity or art comes from one source only, be it music, painting, or even bicycle frames.

You can still find handcrafted bicycle frames, but the majority are designed and manufactured like everything else. That is not to say they are inferior from a functional standpoint, they may even perform better. And as for aesthetics, well they are smooth and shiny, what more can you ask for, or expect.

Looking back, it seems to me that what the customer demands of the craftsman making a hand built item, is a look of perfection. As if it came out of a mold, or was made by machine. When the craftsman attains this, the machines are not only ready to take over, the customer is ready to accept the machine made item.

Automobiles were once built by hand, and yet the finest craftsman, hand beating an auto body panel, could never produce a modern body panel. One that is stamped by a die that was machined by a computer controlled piece of equipment.

As for function, the modern robot built automobile will outperform its hand built counterpart of yesteryear. The robots are of course built by skilled engineers, but once built work for a lot less, and produce more than individual craftsmen.

Items still have to be initially designed by someone creative, an artist. However, with the computer being the modern day design tool of choice, and from there going to the programmer of the machines and robots. I'm not sure where the "Hand Magic" comes into the equation.

It appears the hand of the craftsman has been bypassed completely, in the name of progress. The march of the machines.

The problem is in time will humankind lose contact with the creative source, his contact with Nature? As I said earlier, it is not necessary for the artist to be aware that he is connected to the creative source, but it is necessary that he at least continue to create.

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