It’s Not About the Furniture

If you read these posts over the coming days, weeks, and months I hope you enjoy it. I hope you see yourself somewhere in these words. I hope you read this and hear possibility. I hope you see how crazy it is to take a chance, and then I hope you take one. Big, small, completely impossible…try it.

It’s kind of hard to know where to start this whole thing. I’m behind. I should have been writing this story down years ago. Now I’m playing catch up, and it’s a bit overwhelming. Do I talk about the $1250 my Grandad gave me to buy my first tools which are some of the same tools in my shop today? Do I share about the time I quit a job in copier sales in 2005 to try my hand at building furniture and how it totally didn’t work out? Do I talk about quitting another job, this time in medical sales, in 2011 to once again try my hand at building furniture and how this time, well, it worked out? What about the 100 degree family walks in Houston that led my incredible wife to go for her Masters which ultimately led us to Waco, TX? I should definitely talk about trying to convince my wife that I had it all together and how she saw right through it…thank God for her. What about my mentor who helped me dig to the deepest places of my soul to see who I really was (you won’t believe that chapter)? Should I talk about meeting a guy named Chip at a gas station and how six months later I was filming a pilot with him and his wife for HGTV? What about the fact that I’m completely clear that I’m not the best furniture builder or designer and yet I just wake up and do it anyways?

Yes I should talk about all of that, and I will. But not all at once. Lets just start with this…

I clutched my wife’s hand and we jumped off a cliff. We gave up on what the world taught us to do in order to be right and safe. We looked at our deepest fears, stuck out our hands, introduced ourselves, and faced them in order to find out what was on the other side. I picked up some tools, found some wood, and made some tables. I sweat, bled, and cried.

Sure I love building furniture. But it’s not about that. It’s not about grain, angles, stain and perfection. Lots of folks can build furniture (if I can you can, trust me!). But not everyone will chase a dream or take a chance. Many of us will never face our deepest fears. But we all can. We can all wake up and do that thing that seems impossible. We can try. It doesn’t matter if it works or not. It matters that we tried. What matters is that you stood up in the presence of any and everyone or absolutely no one, and you took a step.

A song was released a few days ago, and I think the words sum it all up perfectly:

You put the work in, don’t worry about the praise, my love
Don’t try to change the world, find something that you love
And do it every day
Do that for the rest of your life
And eventually, the world will change

-macklemore

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It’s not about the furniture. It’s about so much more.