The Importance of Handling Down Tools Generation After Generation written by Justin Press

Bio: Justin Press

A 20+ veteran of the music business emphasizes live events, festivals, touring, and venue marketing and management, including tenures with Sony Music, AEG Live, Monster Energy Music, and ASK4 Entertainment. Also, Justin was a managing partner with Wheelhouse PR and Marketing, working with branding, marketing, and activation for Monster Energy, Ford Motors, Sanyo, Radio City Presents, and the entire Pernod Ricard liquor portfolio with an emphasis on Absolut vodka and Jameson Irish whiskey.

My Other Son Was A Carpenter

When we think of inheritance, we often tend to think about monetary funds and those undisclosed envelopes handed to us by a lawyer on behalf of the estate. It’s about as personal an heirloom as an old couch; it fills a void but doesn’t’t aid our growth. The adage “teach a man to fish…” is not. Instead, so when we think of inheritance, we need to think in more tangible terms. Hence, the idea of handing down tools to build a better life is a much richer experience.

Craftsmanship crosses more than the years and generations; it inspires us to look beyond the idea of paper money, which can be useful but quite fleeting. However, an iron hammer with an oak handle or a mallet that has driven stakes into the ground for decades has a residual effect because they are brick and mortar items that have helped shape, build and repair your family’s heritage. That old cabin that your grandfather built still stands for well over 50 years because the raw materials of stone, wood, and iron can withstand the elements of nature, time, and drought. We live in a modern society that tends to go for the cheapest and most current, knowing full well that the shelf life of what they’ve invested in is short. While the smart investor thinks in years, they are thinking in minutes, the difference between laminate and oak is a massive chasm of quality, sustainability, and dependability. Invest for the long run, not the short gain. Thus the tools we receive from our father and his father and his father’s father never change; they were perfect when when first brought them from the furnace, and they never needed updating to remain futuristic. They are minimalism with one finite purpose, to help you create, endeavor and carry on a tradition, to become a craftsman. So the next time you’re offered anything from granddad’s tool chest, answer YES immediately with full knowledge that one day your son or daughter will wield that same hammer to drive those same nails to secure those same wood beams. Your ancestors will never die as long as you continue on their traditions using their same tools of the trade; every strike of the stake into the hardened ground will bring smiles to those above.