The idea, the product, the business license, filing the fictitous name, getting our tax information, pricing, selling, people interested, sewing, sewing, sewing......it all has happened so fast!
I knew what I wanted to create. The ideas were going like crazy in my head. My husband Gene, and I were throwing ideas at each other like snowballs - some hit the target, some went whizzing past and exploaded into little flakes and melted away.
Then he started creating the website. He was very excited and loves to work with html code. It brought memories of when he did Visual Basic years before we met. He jumped in with both feet and was as enthusiastic about that as I was about creating/sewing the bags.
What is really beautiful about the Tee-cycle Bags conception is that Gene completely stands behind my idea. He loves that he has a contibuting part in the business that he enjoys, and shows sincere interest each (and every) time I hold up a finished bag and show him each and every detail of what I put into it.
He started showing me the ideas that he had come up with regarding the web layout. Some I loved; some were not quite the "vision" I had.
Now comes the delicate part.
How do I tell my wonderful, supportive husband who has been encouraging me, that just maybe "that" design/idea/color wasn't "ME"? I mean after all - wasn't it "me" that actually came up with the original idea? Shouldn't it reflect "me" and "my" personality?
This could be a very intense conversation.
I decided it was best to be honest. And honesty was the best policy because it was handled well on both ends.
OK, maybe it didn't go quite that easily at first, but after some giving and taking on both sides, we have come to agree that both of us have good input and it's actually a fun activity to be open enough to give each other's ideas a chance.
We've grown a lot in that department in that now we have been able to mesh both our ideas into one good one. And if you know us - you know that was is a huge accomplishment in our relationship -- we can both be so stubborn.
Perhaps that was the reason Tee-cycle Bags came to be -- to teach us both a lesson in giving up a little bit of "me, me, me".
In this season of giving, I can happily sign off by saying, "It's ours, ours, ours!"
