Progress Over Perfection

I still own the first item I ever made — a simple knife sheath. It's rough, full of beginner mistakes, and I absolutely love it. That piece kicked off my entire journey. I carried it while teaching wilderness survival, building my early skills, and making my first custom pieces for others. It reminds me not just of how far I’ve come, but of the people who believed in me before I even fully believed in myself.

In a world obsessed with perfection — where flawless filters and polished brands are everywhere — it’s easy to feel like mistakes mean failure. But I don’t buy into that. The flaws are what define us.

When a project allows, I don’t hide the natural scars or blemishes in the leather — I highlight them. Those marks tell a story. They’re the record of time, tension, and transformation. Without our own scars and experiences, we’d just be living at the surface.

And look — I get it. We all know we’re supposed to “fail forward.” We’ve seen the quotes. But then life smacks us with real-world pressure. You make a mistake at work and suddenly there’s no room for growth, only consequences.

That’s why craft is different.

When you’re learning leatherwork, you’re training two systems:

• Your mindset — how you think through a process, visualize outcomes, and keep calm when things go sideways.

• And your hands — the muscle memory that only comes through doing.

The only way to get better is to screw it up. You stitch before setting your rivets. You cut at an angle instead of straight. You over-case the leather and your stamp looks like soup. It sucks. It’s frustrating. And it’s how you grow.

And yeah — somehow we always mess up right at the end of the project. 😂 That’s part of the rite of passage.

So if you’re scared to start because it won’t be perfect… good. That means you’re doing it right. Start anyway.