Also, I've read the 4cs using GIA grading manual and I did
understand it a bit. The hurdle is where I start?
Ganesh, A goldsmith, and successful diamond setter, and diamond
seller I knew (he died about two years ago) had a saying. “Knowledge
is power”. That’s the starting point.
You say you understand it “a bit”. so that’s where you start. “a
bit” is not enough. Either take the GIA diamonds courses, or find
equivalent and equally in depth training. The GIA courses can be
taken by correspondence from anywhere in the world, including India,
and are well worth every dollar they cost.
If you want to be a step ahead of your potential customers, to be
able to impress them, gain their trust, and sell to them, you have to
understand the subject in depth. You can’t do this very well in a bit
by bit, hit or miss fashion. You’ve been trying to get little bits as
you go, but you’re doing it like a blind man trying to find his way.
It’s the slow way. Take the courses. GIA isn’t the only one. The
British Gemological Association’s “FGA” training program is also
excellent. There may be others. But there are no good shortcuts
around doing it right in order to become the expert you need to be in
order to do what you wish. There’s no other good way to say it,
Ganesh. Take the courses. Gain the knowledge and understanding of the
subject, and become a properly trained expert in diamonds. If you do
that, with your family background and the contacts available to you,
I think you’ll then find that achieving your goals will fall right
into place.
The GIA courses, or others like them, offer an in depth
understanding of diamonds and other gems (personally, I think you
would benefit from the whole gemology program, not just the diamonds
courses, but the diamonds courses should be at least the minimum) You
learn not just how they are graded, by why they are graded that way.
You learn not just what the numbers on a certificate REALLY mean, but
you also learn what can not be known by just seeing a certificate.
This is true whether you’re trying to sell a single stone in your
hand to a customer sitting across the counter from you, or if you’re
at a computer terminal or on the phone trying to sell a stone in an
inventory list to a customer a thousand miles away. From that base of
real understanding will flow the knowledge of what’s important about
diamonds, what is NOT important, and how to gain the customer trust
that will sell the stone(s).
The courses are NOT difficult. Almost anyone can take them,
understand them, and complete them. The knowledge is out there in
other books too, but it’s difficult to know, before you learn it,
just what you need. The courses organize it, find the
background you otherwise wouldn’t have known to look for,
and will make sure that what you learn is the correct version of the
knowledge, rather than myths and hearsay and misconceptions and
mistaken traditions that can make the field confusing. And the
certificates you earn for completing the courses also can help assure
your customers that you do indeed know what you’re talking about.
Again, it’s the issue of them trusting you. Some of your past
postings, especially on rec.crafts.jewelry where I first “met” you,
or on your blog, have demonstrated my impression that you’re trying
hard to learn this but are running into obstacles and
mistaken impressions, and blind alleys. Learning like that, even with
the help of a wonderful group like Orchid, will take you a lot
longer, and won’t be as complete or work as well, as getting actual
formal training. If you were taking a trip on an airplane, would you
want a pilot who had properly complete flight school and gotten his
pilots license the right way, and had proper training and experience
flying the actual type of jet you were on, or would you be just as
happy with a pilot who’d learned to fly from Microsoft Flight
simulator (computer simulation/game) plus what a friend had told him
plus what he’s sort of managed to figure out on his own?
It’s pretty simple really. What you’re asking to be able to do, is to
become an expert, and highly successful in a field where you have
many competent competitors. If you want to compete with them, you
have to also become an expert just as many of them have done. Better
still, you have to become even more knowledgeable than they are.
Google may be powerful, and this group helpful, but they aren’t the
tools you really need. Formal training is.
Hope that helps.
Peter Rowe