The clocks just about to hit midnight and the calendars rolling over into 2019, what a year 2018 has been and what a year I am about to have in 2019.
If you have read these pages then you may have guessed that my mission has always been to stand on my own two feet and run my entire operation full time.
For the past 18 years I have been employed by the Ford Motor Company as a Prototype Machinist and I have just taken the largest step towards my own future that I am ever likely to take.
Rewind 5 months back to a hot August evening, a push bike ride through my local neighbourhood, under the highway, down a road, over an oval, into the back of Deakin University to be confronted by a bunch of new buildings I hadn’t seen before. There was one particular building that sparked my interest and wouldn’t leave my train of thought, it was titled Manufutures.
The rest of that evening was spent researching what Manufutures is; “This innovation hub offers a unique opportunity for creative and inspirational manufacturing enterprises that are designing for the future. Not only will they share the hub, which facilitates collaboration, but they’ll also be able to leverage the expertise of Deakin’s researchers, as well as our undergraduate and postgraduate students”. The more I read into it the more I wanted to be a part of it.
One simple email followed up by a phone call initiated a 4 month long chain of events that will shape my immediate future and present myself and Engineered To Slide with amazing opportunities I have only dreamt of.
It has been an experience, for the last 18 years my day job has been in a declining business, my effort and energy firmly focussed on what little time I had left to forge a new path for myself via Engineered To Slide. As both businesses took vastly different routes in recent years I made all the right moves in 2018 to create a clear division between the two and focus on what I love.
For the first time in my life I really feel like my passion, drive and energy have found a home, one that will nurture and support my ideas and bring Engineered To Slide the tools it needs to take it to the next level.
So whats all this mean? My home garage stays relatively the same but the addition of a 150 square metre production facility with a 50 square metre office above it, but more importantly it is the support from one of Australia’s leading University’s that gives Engineered To Slide a unique advantage. The wealth of knowledge and tools possessed within the University’s grounds is mind blowing and over the course of my lease I will be bringing you some insight into what is possible within this environment.
From January the 8th 2019 I get the keys to my future, Engineered To Slide gets my undivided attention, I will work harder than I ever have before to create new opportunities and you get a front row seat via these pages.
In the next post I will show you the beginning of the fit-out phase and give you some insight into whats coming up, get excited, I certainly am!