Three Accompany

Back to serious business of pot collecting. Below are three Yixing teapots made in the 1970s, could be earlier. The workmanship (you can see every detail of the teapot in the shape of a tree trunk, even the bark is rough) is superb because during that time, there was no urgency to produce teapots rapidly. Do you know why? Put it simply, the workers did not get to share any profits made, everything earned belonged to the state. At that time all the companies in China were owned by the government. Hence, there was no incentive for the average factory workers to mass-produce anything in the factory. I don't think they knew there was such thing called productivity. So the workers took their own sweet time to manufacture things in their own pace. In a way, if you take you time to make things slowly, definitely the quality and workmanship has got to be good. At least this is what I believe. Another thing is that if you always churn out good things, your superior will appreciate you effort and your career will take off, because he realises that there is something special in you (what we call talent). You will be sent for training to upgrade your skills so that you can even perform better. If you are smart and diligent, you will not disappoint your company. You will become better and better. In the long run, the company will reap all the benefits because of your capabilities (in handling businesses). This is how the world operates. This rule seldom changes no matter what you may say.

Teapots of 3 different types of  clay

I do have some basis to back up my belief. For instance, if you look at the maker of the above teapots. He may be a very ordinary factory worker (even tough he produced very high quality and good workmanship teapots) during the 70s. Now, if you check the Who's Who in the county of Yixing in Jiangsu Province, you will be surprised to find that this ordinary worker has become a Senior Craftmaster who is currently in-charge of a Yixing factory.

Hard work does matter if one desires to excel in anything one does. Do not look for short-cuts as this is not the way to succeed in life.

                                                    Interesting video on teapot salesman