Other than a muddled mess of notebooks, multi-colored dry-erase markers and any remnants from my colleagues’ latest donut purchase, only two items have made my desk their permanent home: two pieces of welded hypodermic tubing. They weren’t left carelessly by the custom fab shop, and they don’t serve any practical function in my workspace. No, those pieces of metal are the souvenirs from my first day of work at Component Supply.
When I rode down to work for the first time, I had no idea what I was getting into here. However, the people were friendly and the work was intriguing, so I was willing to get my feet wet. Only there was no “getting my feet wet” at Component Supply. When I first walked into the shop, Mark handed me a pair of safety glasses, and Jeff sat me down at a welding machine with some hypodermic tubing and taught me how to weld two pieces of metal together. I’m sure I did all sorts of wrong to that poor welding machine. I don’t have Jeff’s gentle touch with machinery. Nevertheless, I welded that tubing. It wasn’t pretty, but it was my work and I was proud of it. Jeff then went on to do what I did, only much better and in much less time. I looked at the two pieces together and there was no doubt about the creator of each piece. I made some self-deprecating comment about how hopeless my welding job was compared to Jeff’s. Then Mark grabbed the result of my shoddy craftsmanship from my hands and took it over to some other machines. A couple minutes later, he brought back my welding project all smooth, shiny and polished. You can still see a difference between my work and Jeff’s, but the discrepancy seems much less obvious than it did at first.
Now I keep both pieces of hypodermic tubing on my desk to remind me of two things. First, it’s ok to take a risk and try something new. I didn’t know much about the processes of our shop when I stepped into it the first time. But, Jeff and Mark, without hesitation, let me try my hand at those processes anyway, reminding me it was ok to fail as long as I kept trying. Second, at Component Supply our team can take your original idea and make it even better. It’s just how we operate. Sometimes you create a plan and try to execute it, but your idea just doesn’t manifest itself the way you had hoped. Our team at Component Supply can take your idea, even one you thought was hopeless, and return it to you, smooth, shiny and polished. We see the potential in our researchers and product designers, and if there’s any way we can make your idea even better, we work with you to make it happen.
