Playing the long game

It’s been quite a journey. For the last 10 years, I’ve been trying to start a “company,” but they always ended up as side projects that never went anywhere. That changed 3 years ago when I left my tech job to follow my passion: woodworking. I told myself—forget market size, forget money, forget all the meaningless stuff—and just focus on doing something I love for the rest of my life.

Since then, I’ve been working toward a long-term vision, trying to combine all my passions into a business. Woodworking is at the core; now I’m figuring out how to merge it with design and code to build something profitable. After leaving my last job, I started Lone Birch (lonebirch.com), a home office company, which led to Distro (distromade.com) when I needed to scale production. And now, with AI, I’m trying to ramp up volume with Furnish (furnish.design).

In my 20s, I was always chasing the next big disruptor, whether or not I cared about it or even understood the problem. I’m turning 37 this summer, and while the number sounds old, I don’t feel it—especially with this new mindset. I used to think I had to “make it” young and buy the cool cars and shit, but none of that matters. What matters is that you keep going until you find it. I figure I’ll find product-market fit eventually. I mean, come on—if I don’t, that’s either extremely unlucky or it was never there to begin with, and I don’t buy either of those.

All that’s to say: you’ve gotta be in it for the long haul. Like, the LONGGG haul. Like, until you're dead broski. ALL THE WAY.

Maybe I’m just telling myself this to stay sane, because right now it’s damn hard—with a newborn and another turning 3, it’s damn hard. You young bucks in your early 20s don’t know how easy you’ve got it, which is why you should figure it out then. But even if you don’t, there’s still time. Plenty of time.