Creating A Craftsman

I do not know what your profession is.  I don’t know what your ambitions are.  I don’t know your skills, your level of education, your age, or anything about your attitude, history or aptitudes.  All these are irrelevant to the Creating a Craftsman program.  These are irrelevant because a craftsman is known as a craftsman not because of his particular craft or occupation, but because of how he lives, behaves, and manifests his abilities in this world.

Being good at your occupation does not make you a craftsman.  Having years of experience does not necessarily make you a craftsman either.  I have met 75 year-old guys who knew their trade inside and out whom I would not call craftsmen.  They have experience.  They have knowledge.  They can perform their work with skill and efficiency.  But they don’t have all the defining characteristics of a craftsman.  They may have some of them, but not all.  After a lifetime of work, they are still simply workers.  They are just employees or tradesmen.  But they’re not craftsmen.

So what defines a craftsman?

What distinguishes a craftsman from everyone else is a combined set of attitudes and traits that permeate his life and his work.  At times, it is hard to distinguish his “work” from the rest of his life.  That is not to say that all he does is work.  Rather, all he does is craft.  His attitude is that of a productive person – all the time, not just at work.  He is always building and improving something and what he does is always done well, with quality.