I'm an Artist, not a Factory!

I appreciate the last comments but have to say, I am an artist not a factory. I'm not interested in making larger and larger quantities of stuff, I'm interested in making the next cool thing. There's a big difference there. My voyage is one of creative discovery and invention, not necessarily one of trying to grow a business in the classic sense of the term.

This is one reason why I am sometimes not interested in making more and more of the same item...Item A has been made once or twice, the ideas have been thoroughly explored, now I'm done with it and it's discontinued. Things that I enjoy making, I will make more of them, the rest I will stop doing and go onto the next idea that I'm interested in.

I think what has happened is that I suddenly got a lot of attention due to some influential blogs spreading the word about my stuff. There were a couple of mentions in Blade magazine as well. So as a result there are now many times the number of people looking for Atwood tools than were previously there before. That is probably the biggest reason for the huge increase in traffic over the past few months and the subsequent scarcity of items.

This heightened visibility is not my fault and I certainly have taken pains to avoid the limelight. Indeed, I even have purposely shunned interview requests and asked to not be mentioned in magazines precisely because I did not want a great increase in exposure. Part of the fallout may be the recent appearance of the Chinese copies.

To those who want me to build a factory and hire a staff, I understand completely where you are coming from and sometimes wish that I could do that. But ultimately, and I think WISELY, I do not want to do it. There are many reasons for it which I won't get into here but I may at some point collect my thoughts on this and write it up.

Bottom line, I'd much rather have fun and keep being creative than relentlessly pursue some misguided goal of trying to become a millionaire.