1. Wearing the best jewelry at any party.
2. Practicing the lost art of goldsmithing. It’s ancient and important and spiritual to represent events in a person’s life in an object of precious material.
3. Working with family, appreciating the time you get to spend together.
4. The freedom to be a hopeless romantic.
5. Clients remember you forever.
6. Being invited to customers’ weddings because you have played such an important role in their love story.
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7. Everyone has a story to tell about their jewelry. At parties, there is always an opportunity to talk jewelry.
8. The respect that comes with being a third-generation business owner. (Or first-generation entrepreneur!)
9. Being able to hold tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of diamonds in the palm of your hand.
10. Customers who become friends and even family.
12. On Christmas morning, hundreds of folks squealing with delight, opening boxes with your name on them!
13. Being at the bench creating a one-of-a-kind custom piece for someone and then realizing how much it means to them and sharing in their joy.
14. No two days are alike. As long as that door is open, you are one sale away from a great day.
15. People always want to know a good jeweler, like a doctor or a lawyer.
16. Meeting jewelry artists and designers.
17. Making an object someone loves that will outlast you. Every piece is like a bit of immortality.
18. You have the knack for making great conversation with total strangers.
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19. The joy and emotion you share with people you otherwise would never have met.
20. The trust people place in you and how they tell you everything so easily, as if you are their closest friend.
21. You never know what beautiful piece of estate jewelry is going to walk in the front door.
22. Getting to wear inventory. You can wear something different every day.
23. Being your own boss.
24. Knowing everyone in town. Customers make a big fuss over you at the grocery store and tell everyone you are their personal jeweler.
25. Getting to see the new stuff first. Clients look to you for advice on style and trends.
26. Playing with the tools and fire and molten metals and waxes.
28. The smiles. Everyone walks out happy. You get a chance every day to make someone else’s life a little brighter.
29. Being a part of people’s most intimate decisions, like what to present to your new spouse or how to commemorate the birth of a child. Who else gets to be such an integral part of every other human being’s special, personal moments? First love, proposals, weddings, anniversaries, promotions, births, graduation, sweet 16 and yes, even funerals.
30. Taking something old and worn out and making it brand new again — repairing the worst mess, and slowly revealing a thing of beauty.
31. You can learn a lot about people by being their jeweler. It’s interesting to see how someone acts in your store and then out in public.
32. Being surrounded by beauty. Just getting lost looking inside some of the gorgeous diamonds.
33. What’s not to like about being in the second oldest profession?
34. Helping longtime clients’ children as they begin their own course through life.
36. You get to make women happy and make men heroes.
37. You become a good listener, in and out of your store. You’re really a psychologist without a degree.
38. Being one of only three people who know what exciting news a newly engaged couple are about to announce to the world.
39. People light up once they realize you are a jeweler. People associate the great feeling of being given jewelry with you.
40. This really is a low-stress industry, selling something that people fundamentally don’t need. It’s basically a candy store for adults.
41. Creativity. In what you want to carry, how you display it, how you market it, how you present it in a sales presentation, and how you run the place. There is room to grow and change.
43. Being in the presence of true love.
44. Selling that first piece of jewelry to a 13-year-old boy for his first girlfriend. There’s nothing like witnessing the innocence and generosity of youth through older eyes.
45. You are an expert in a field where customers are completely in the dark. Even with countless hours of research on the Internet, customers can’t just look at a diamond and tell you if it is an SI1 or SI2.
46. Being a G.G. and being able to educate customers about how diamonds get their value, how color stones are evaluated, are treated. To help clients feel they are “in the know.”
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47. The awe of seeing what Mother Nature has to offer.
48. You can tell all the fakes in the room.
49. The amazing way you can touch a person’s soul with a simple act of kindness.
50. You get to travel the world buying diamonds, gold and gemstones. Well, to Las Vegas, at least.
So … What Do You Think is Awesome About Being a Jeweler?
Share your thoughts in the comments section below and we’ll include them in a future expanded version of this feature.