I have been saying that I will do this for years now. It's long overdue. Finally, I am getting the Hidgit venture off the ground. What is this going to be all about you ask? This first blog post will answer that and more. So let's dive in...
First, an introduction is in order: Hi. I'm Sean. And as of today, Hidgit consists of just me. So, when I say "we", "our" or "us" anywhere on this site, it is the proverbial "we". After 15-years of following the standard American linear career path, I had a revelation- It's not for me. That's not to say it is/was all bad. I just had an itch in my life that wasn't ever going to be satisfactorily scratched until I did something about it. So here goes.
Why do you care about any of this? Because I am solely backing this venture with my own money, time, and effort- I care. I care about what you think, your experience with our products and services, and your overall experience with Hidgit. I am not some nameless customer service rep (or one with a fake name) from an outsourced company that represents another company that doesn't have a vested interest in your satisfaction. I want this to be a success and will strive to maintain a level of personal service that exceeds expectations.
I like to invent things and improve processes. And I like lots of different things! I have two engineering degrees, one in mechanical and the other in biomedical. I love to think about how humans interact with products and the world. I have worked at various jobs since I was 14-years old, and that exposure has given me many interests and skills. In no particular order, I have worked in boat yards, as a certified mechanic, welder, machinist, woodsman, bartender, engineer, project manager, consultant, researcher, and general technologist. Most of my background is in new product development for medical devices. That experience has driven my obsession with quality, proper material selection, and robust design processes. I still love to work on cars and motorcycles when I get the chance (I miss the ocean and boats now that I live in inland Virginia). In my personal life I will tackle just about any home improvement project, enjoy cooking and make craft cocktails, and will tinker around on just about anything.
If there is one thing I loathe the most in this life, it's having to do the same thing twice because of poor workmanship, materials, planning, and/or lack of quality tools. People who don't take pride in their work and have the "can't see it from my house" mentality when it comes to their work are my antithesis. Buying or doing the same thing twice (or more) leads to waste. You waste materials, money, and worse yet- your time. And that all leads to frustration. When I get into doing something, I obsess about doing it better and can't stop thinking about ways to improve it until the end product meets my expectations (which are always high). Getting job satisfaction from doing a job right gives me some sort of odd high and unexplainable happiness in life. If I can't find something that can be bought to help (i.e.- good tools), I start my inventive process. In that process, after much thought and iteration, I usually come up with some pretty clever ideas and turn those into functional prototypes (or drinks) for my own use. After years of hearing people say: "why don't you make more of those and sell 'em...", I have decided to do just that. And this has given rise to the new Hidgit slogan and mission statement: "Do it better."
By applying the "do it better" mindset to everything we do here at Hidgit, I hope to make it a great place for like-minded people to find high quality, innovative products and solutions for a wide array of things that are fun to get into. As Hidgit grows and expands its offering, I will be posting helpful content and how-to videos on the site. Thanks for reading the first blog post and if there is something you can think of that we can do better, please let us know!
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