If At First (by Tanja)

 

Everyone knows the old adage: If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.

It reminds me of one of those kiddie animated movies we used to watch with our children when they were small - The Rescuers Down Under - where the seagull has to fly two little mice (the rescuers) to Australia to save a kidnapped boy. The poor bird has to take off in a horrible storm and asks the little mouse to read him the pre-flight checklist. The last item says: If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.

There’s psychology behind perseverance. Take, for example, concepts like grit, resilience, and the growth mindset, and how they contribute to success in various aspects of life.

People can’t always accept the importance of embracing failure as a natural part of the learning process. Each failure brings valuable lessons and brings us one step closer to eventual success.

There are times when you have to go look for strategies for staying motivated and persistent when faced with obstacles. Whether it's setting specific goals, breaking tasks into smaller steps, or seeking support from others, there are many ways to keep moving forward.

There’s also a transformative power in persistence and the way that it can lead to personal growth, self-improvement, and ultimately, fulfillment. But unfortunately, we don’t always perceive our “failures” in this way. Persistence means pushing forward, no matter what challenges you may face. There’s only one real failure, and that is giving up too soon.

Winston Churchill uttered the famous words: "Never, never, never give up".

There does come a point, however, when you have to take a step back, re-evaluate, and then decide whether a certain direction is worth pursuing. This is not the same as giving up!

Danie and I are experts in this department. We’ve tried so many things since losing our business during Covid and having all our possessions repossessed by the bank. As mentioned in a previous post, we found ourselves in such a predicament due to our age, lack of formal qualifications and certain, very obvious, disabilities (aka PegLegs).

Plato famously wrote: “Our need will be the real creator”, which was molded over time into the English proverb: “Necessity is the mother of invention”.

I’m going to share a few of our projects, which we thought were pretty awesome at the time, but sadly didn’t find a significant spot in the limelight.

A fully collapsible, all terrain Wheelchair:

Before Danie had prosthetic legs, getting to the beach was impossible. So, together with my innovative brother, Eugene, we designed and built a really cool wheelchair. It took us months to design and engineer parts, modify certain bicycle parts, and perfect our creation. We applied for a patent, set up a Facebook page and contacted various companies, but nobody shared our enthusiasm. After some time, we decided to stop pursuing this venture and ended up donating the two wheelchairs to people who could benefit from them.

Onsite Inspections:

Trying to utilize Danie's mechanical experience and expertise, we set up a website offering his services as a vehicle inspector. So, if anyone needed a second opinion on vehicle repairs or wanted to buy a used vehicle, Danie would inspect the vehicle and give his honest opinion, for a fee. The only setback we had with this type of business was that Danie couldn't test drive the vehicles with prosthetic legs, and it was a real battle to get under a vehicle for a visual inspection. 

My Own Wine:

During the Covid Plandemic, South Africa was put under the most ridiculous rules and regulations, one of them being a complete liquor ban. The distributors of liquor were not even allowed to make any deliveries during this time. Many South Africans started their own homemade brews, micro distilleries and smuggling operations. My son-in-law, who worked for many wine farms, would often smuggle bottles of wine for us to sell at my wine and gin bar, and eventually started his own distilling of brandy, using the wine which the wineries weren’t able to sell. To generate an income, Danie and I started smuggling liquor too. Now, you must understand that during Covid there were roadblocks everywhere and vehicles were randomly checked for contraband. We chose a particularly miserable rainy winter day to drive to a designated pick-up point and load 96 bottles of brandy, which we hid in every available crevice of our car. You know what they say about desperate times calling for desperate measures? Well, these were desperate times.

I then got a contact at a wine farm to buy unlabeled wines and re-sell them. I decided to make my own labels and branding for an added touch, and called my wine selection Brakwijn, using Murphy as my logo. Dodgy times, is all I can say.

Wine Barrels:

Danie and I have a love for wine barrels. We love the beautiful French oak from which they’re made. We love the smell of aging wine which escapes while working on them. And we love the way it can be incorporated into home furnishings. When I designed my wine and gin bar, I had all the tables and chairs made from wine barrel wood. It was really stunning, but that was then.

Danie decided to take wine barrels and make something completely different with them. He drilled about three thousand holes in a pattern which I drew onto the barrels. Then he cut a hole at the bottom, put light fittings inside and added wheels to make it easy to move. At night the real beauty came out when the lights would shine though all the holes, revealing the pattern. I’m speaking of hours of work that went into these designs and finishes and we were so proud of the end results. Sadly, we didn’t find a big interest and stopped making them.

Murphy's Flaw Wine Barrel Furniture

Copper Creations:

For a short while we found a market for handmade copper lamps and items. Danie had a few cute designs and we even had a Christmas market stall at Lourensford Wine Estate where we displayed and tried to sell our copper items and wine barrels. When Danie lost his sight in his left eye he was unable to continue with the fine soldering work.

Lourensford Christmas Market

Vegetable Growers:

This was quite an amazing idea which we got off the internet. It is a self-composting system to which earthworms are added, with a tap underneath the grower to drain the “worm tea” and pour this enriched water back into the veggies. Danie made a round iron frame on castor wheels for easy maneuvering and equal sunlight distribution.  This was a great way for people living in apartments or for retired people who still had an interest in gardening, to grow a small vegetable and herb garden. Once again, the amount of time spent making this grower outweighed the money we were able to charge for it. The only really unfortunate thing is that the welding sparks irreparably damaged Danie’s prosthetic sleeves, which we have been unable to replace to this day. The sleeves are so worn out that he is no longer able to walk his usual five kilometers per day due to the discomfort it causes.

Generator and Pellet Gun repairs:

Having years of mechanical experience behind him, Danie had the ability to repair generators and other mechanical machinery out of the garage. He still does it when the opportunity presents itself, but finds it frustrating when he has to battle alone without assistance. I’m not always available to be the mechanical assistant, and besides, I hate doing this kind of work. For many years, while we had our mechanical workshop, I helped out where I could. Many times, my assistance was required to remove an engine or gearbox or hand over tools. I had a pretty good knowledge of tools and mechanics 😊

Doing mechanical repairs on vehicles is definitely a thing of the past. Danie is unable to stand and do repairs with his prosthetic legs. It just becomes too painful and uncomfortable after a while. The last time he tried to help a friend replace the fan belt on his car, I ended up completing the job (with a huge amount of cursing, which is unlike me). I swore that if he ever touched a vehicle (other than our own) again, I would divorce him.

Fat Trap Cleaning:

This is a most unpleasant job, but it’s a job and helps to cover some of our expenses. While Danie is not able to assist with this, he travels the long distances with me twice a week and watches over Murphy, who goes everywhere with us. It’s also great having a second pair of eyes on the road. The drivers on our South African roads are reckless and I don’t always concentrate as I should while driving, so Danie is there to keep a watchful eye and warn me if he sees a dangerous situation.

Along with the fat trap cleaning, I make my own eco-friendly microbial product, called Envirocrobes, which keeps the fat from solidifying, making it easier to remove from the fat traps and keeping drain pipes open and flowing. My product is also dosed into effluent waste water treatment systems so that the water can be used for irrigation purposes. Maybe some day I'll find a market for my Envirocrobes potion too.

Massage Therapy:

After losing our business during Covid, I decided to do a few diploma courses in Lymphatic drainage and massage therapies. Although I’m still quite new in this field, I share a small therapy room with two other ladies and twice a week I am able to give treatments. It is a very therapeutic experience which I enjoy giving, and I already have a few regular clients. Here's my website: MLD4LIFE

Selling items for people:

One of the things I also do on the side, is selling unwanted items for people. In our garage, I have set apart a small space where I display and sell these items. Sometimes it can be very frustrating because people can be so incredibly stupid. I advertise all the items with detailed descriptions and still you’ll get someone who will ask me what the price is, or how big the item is, or they’re on their way and then never show up. But at the same time, selling these items contributes to our income, so I grin and bear the stupidity of people.

Blogging:

I started the PegLegs and Me Blog as a platform on which to share our experiences, explain our situation, share our feelings, motivate people and maybe use it as a platform to generate an income and share future projects. This is an ongoing and growing idea.

Our current project:

We are super proud of our new project. After searching for something to alleviate the pain in Danie’s joints, we stumbled onto a great natural alternative to pharmaceutical medications, which we started making ourselves. One thing led to another and we have begun a little “manufacturing plant” in our garage. We are currently looking for a market for our unique product, called Arthravo, and hopefully this will lead to a sustainable income and allow me to leave the fat trap job.

Conclusion:

These are just a few of the many projects we’ve had over the last few years. The point that I am trying to make is that giving up has never been an option. I refused to give up on Danie, despite all his health and physical challenges over the last few years. He gave everything when he was able, and now I’m there for him too. Life is full of challenges, but it’s full of learning curves too. I still play a lottery ticket every week, even though it’s false hope, but it’s like I always say: “A little bit of false hope is better than no hope at all.”

Using failures as stepping stones is invaluable. If you’ve tried something and it doesn’t work, move on, learn what doesn’t work and try something else. Somewhere along the way things are going to work out just fine and we will look back (for a moment) and reflect on how we got from A to Z.

A miracle in the making. A project in progress. A stepping stone towards a solution.

If at first you don’t succeed, don’t give up!