A Tale of Two Customers

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” - Robert Frost

When in college, the idea occurred to me that, just for fun, I would like to try making stained glass windows. Ok, the real truth is that there was a girl I was interested in who had absolutely no interest in me. This seems like a recurring theme in my posts. Well, anyway, I had been thinking about learning to make windows, and then heard that she was making windows. I thought, “Well, if she can do it, so can I.” So I took the classes and, as you will see, it really changed the course of my life.

First off, it surprised me to learn that I loved making stained glass windows and was good at it too. Having made my first couple of windows, my mother’s friend asked me if I could make her a window, saying that she would pay me for it too. Well, the next thing you knew, I had a business that was not my intention to start. I worked at it all through college and for a while afterwards as well.

Through this process, I had become good friends with Cheryl and Rick Morris who owned Dragonfly Stained Glass, where Cheryl, a former art teacher, taught me to make windows.

While there picking out glass for my next window, a woman came in with a window that looked like it had been thrown off the roof. She asked Cheri if she could fix it, to which Cheri replied, “Sorry, we only make new windows and sell glass and supplies and of course teach classes.”

The woman asked her if she knew anyone who could fix her window, and she said no again. I said, “I can.” And they both looked at me and asked, “You can?” And I said yes, and the customer hired me on the spot, and Cheri said she would send me all their repairs. So, in two seconds, I had been hired and had an offer of an ongoing supply of customers.

I went to all the stained glass and antiques shops in town to tell them about my new venture of repairing and restoring stained glass windows. Before long, I had a roaring business that fit in nicely between my classes and study.

Cheri’s husband Rick became one of my closest friends, and we ended up living on the same street. And for the last twenty years, we have gone walking together on Saturday mornings before anyone else is up.

Back to business, most times the people who called me had either a broken craft-faire trinket or a broken antique window that had been in their garage forever. Having completed the repair or restoration, they were so pleased to recover the item that meant something special to them that often they would ask me to make them another window. The reason was simple: I charged a fair price and did the work well and on time, so I got the next job too and was never in competition.

One day, I met Mrs. K, no doubt over some small repair she needed, and as usual I brought along my portfolio of completed windows and also catalogs of spectacular antique windows for sale at auction sites. Mrs. K chose a large panel from a three-window ceiling that had been made by Louis Comfort Tiffany, the Michelangelo of stained glass windows. I said yes to the most ambitious window I had ever made to that point, and it is pictured above. After that, she wanted me to make another window and then another.

Now, the third window was a problem. Mrs. K chose the glass, from my box of samples, and though I didn’t like the glass she chose I made the window anyway. Mistake. I installed the window when she was on an errand and when she returned, she said she hated it. I didn’t like it either, as I thought it looked like a circus window. But rather than throw me and the window out, she graciously paid me for it and even gave it back to me saying, “Let’s build it again, but this time I will go with you to choose the glass from the warehouse.” So, we did, and that window was truly exquisite, my favorite of all the windows I made.

Another customer, let’s call her Dr. No (or at least that’s what Dave Massey, my window framer, and I called her), could be a bit testy. She had two large antique windows with 30 or more different colors in them and wanted me to make her four more exactly like them and install all six in her living room. That was quite a task, but when done you couldn’t tell one window from the other, and it worked beautifully.

We had a falling out when, at the end of the job, she demanded that I give her any scrap glass that was left over after the windows were made. No one had ever asked me that, and it seemed like asking a painter of a landscape for the left-over paint. Eventually, I gave her the remaining glass, but she was so unfriendly about it that that was my last job with her.

Well, years went by and I made the natural transition to the insurance business, as it became clear to me that I didn’t like spending my workday alone and felt that breathing lead fumes for thirty years would not be a good idea.

One day, my parents decided to have a garage sale, and I brought Mrs. K's rejected window to the sale and hung out with my folks for a while. In the afternoon, I looked down the driveway and, lo and behold, up walked Dr. No.

We were surprised to see each other. She looked around for a while and then homed in on Mrs. K’s rejected window and decided she wanted it.

Dr. No bought the window and asked me what I was doing now. I said, “I am in the insurance business,” to which she replied, “Well, I would never buy insurance from you!” To which I replied, “And I would never come to you as a patient.”

Having indulged our little tantrums, we bid each other adieu. After the fact, it seemed ironic that I had only had one customer I didn't like in all the time I spent making stained glass windows, and that she ended up buying the one window I didn’t like either, years later.

But much more than that, so many benefits came out of all that experience:

• I discovered my creativity, which led gradually to my finding my true creative passion in writing.
• I met my lifelong friend, Rick, and his wonderful wife Cheri.
• I found out that I liked business, on my terms. And being an entrepreneur has led me to enjoy what I do now more than any work I have ever done.

So here's what I've learned, if you stay in motion, nearly everything works out. Don't give up when it’s not going well. Keep moving forward and it will lead to something good.

To see some more of my stained glass windows, click here.

-Hank Frazee, Author of Referral Upgrade and Before We Say "Goodnight"

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