Breakdancing and Screen Printing

When I was a kid I wanted to grow up and be a professional breakdancer. The only problem was that I was short, pasty white, kind of chubby, and lacking a whole lot of body rhythm. I gave up on breakdancing after losing several competitions to this other kid - Todd Baker. He could do a body wave which started in his hands, wiggled through his feet, came back up and ended in his tongue - HIS TONGUE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! How can I compete with that? Dejected, I walked away from breakdancing, and haven’t looked back. I do, however, still occasionally moonwalk around the house.

I’m quite certain that’s the same mindset that lead me into screen printing. And quite possibly nearly destroyed my efforts. I saw what everyone else around me was doing, and figured I had to do it myself. “To beat the best, you have to be the best” I’ve always heard. But in actuality, that’s the most detrimental mindset you can have.

You don’t have to be the best at anyting. In fact, you should strive for adequacy! There are only a few people in any given field of excellence who can truly be considered the best, and it’s usually in sports and or earnings reports where things are quantifiable, and not necessarily subject to the whims and objections of the final arbiter. Can anyone argue that Tiger Woods isn’t the best golfer in the world?

But in our world, the world of designs and printing. We, the new screen printers, can’t even be the best in our small markets, let alone the world. So why try? Why not strive, instead to give to the best of your abilities, and give the customer what they need, not pine and worry over what you think they deserve.

For me, I can’t be the best designer or the printer, and I don’t want to be. To my customers, I can be summed up in one word: Servant. And that is just fine with me.

Oh, and Todd? He’s fat now, and manages a furniture store. He never went on to be a pro breaker, and he couldn’t screen print a shirt to save his life.

Victory is oh so deliciously sweet.