You might have thought my note’s title was some sort of cryptic preview of a political comment, but it isn’t.
I really do just want to suggest an interesting idea for a gift for yourself or someone else you think would appreciate it…and for the record I have no financial interest or any other tie to the company.
Anyway, the idea is a “fine writing instrument,” which is to say a great-quality, highly engineered, beautiful, and functional pen, made right here in the USA.
I just interviewed Reid Hazelton, the founder of the American Pen Company on my Saturday morning radio show and he brought up a great point: “It’s as important to your personal and business reputation to have a quality pen as it is a good suit, pair of fine shoes and a nice brief case of sorts. Would you pull out a BIC on a $750,000 deal?”
Now in my business I’m not signing a lot of deals, but Reid made another analogy that hit much closer to home for me: Buying a fine (and not inexpensive) pen is very similar to buying a fine (and not inexpensive) watch. Sure, a Timex can tell time, but for those into nice watches (as I am, though I can’t afford to support my interest in them), there’s something special about having a marvel of engineering and art on your hand. I can imagine the same for a pen, especially for those people who need to acutally use pens in their daily lives.
So if you’re willing to spend somewhere between $200 and $400 on a real work of functional craftsmanship, check out https://www.americanpencompany.com/
I repeat, I have no financial interest in the company and don’t know Mr. Hazelton. I just think it’s great to bring back a useful and classic thing and to remind people that not everything needs to be made of plastic and in Asia. (The company has offices in Colorado which is how I came to hear about them.)
If you do get a pen from them, do me a favor and let me know what you think of it! (I’ll probably get one soon myself, but need to figure out just what kind…they have a nice “build my pen” page and I’m not yet sure what kind of pen and what options I want yet.)
