Investment: Not Always About Money

Investment in SelfDuring the morning break at the Santa Fe Symposium (SFS) yesterday, I made an investment in myself. I went out by the pool, took my shirt off and sat in the sun for a full half-hour.  Hard to give up the networking, every moment here is an opportunity to meet a new, or reunite with an old friend.  And SFS is populated by many of the most important people in the jewelry industry.
But the best investment can be elusive. And for me it is rarely about the money, or contacts or what many people would recognize as “opportunity”.  I’ve come to recognize that an investment can mean many other things.

Here’s an example.  When I first began coming to SFS 12 years ago it became customary for me to take an early-morning walk down to the Rio Grande River.  It’s just over a mile from the hotel and at an early hour, as the sun comes up, a very pleasant walk.  Part of that walk proceeds west from Rio Grande Blvd. along Central Avenue, old Route 66.  That half-mile stretch from Rio Grande Blvd. to the river has several operating old-time Route 66 hotels.  I became intrigued by one that was abandoned the first time I made that walk.  It is called El Vado and is an adobe-type construction that, at least in my imagination, must have had a colorful history.  I visualized buying that dilapidated property and restoring it to a vibrant bit of history with a contemporary, hip, spin.
Well, it is a good dream, and I have held on to it for all the years I’ve been coming down here, wondering what it would be like.  Just what would it take to bring back to functionality and how cool could I make it? Of course, my real love is designing and manufacturing custom jewelry so I knew that El Vado would remain a dream for me. But I have built an “investment” in that property that will never go away!  And on today’s walk I find that someone is making my El Vado dream come true for themselves.  I’m ecstatic!

I knew I was never going to restore that property but every year that I walked down past it I feared I would see it leveled, or worse, a cracker-box hotel replacing my beloved El Vado.  That’s a classic emotional investment that I’m happy to retain.  And I can’t wait to come stay one day, drink a craft beer sitting by the pool that, under different circumstances, might have been mine.
Investment in Others
​Now, most people should probably never really consider jewelry to be a monetary investment.  But one can make a different kind of investment with well-made jewelry!  The emotional investment that we all have in the relationships and special events in our lives are often memorialized in personal jewelry.

I love being a part of that!  Contact me today to begin your project.  It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money, the investment will be in the people you love, and the things that are important to you.  Like sitting in the sun, or having a dream…
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