I wish I knew this before becoming a woodworker

Woodworking is fun. Sure.

But if I knew the things I am going to list later on, my woodworking experience would have been a lot easier and more fun for me. Little did I know the road I was going to walk was going to be one with a lot of setbacks. Not so much in the money making part, that was okay actually, but in the ‘having fun while doing it’ part.

Everybody is in it for the money, somehow. I was working a full time job when I started and did the woodworking part on the side. I was making more and more money on the woodworking part.

The reason why is that I started taking on custom projects. Custom river tables, completely made to the wishes of the client. Most of it was fun. Except for the deadline. And deadlines and working full time jobs don’t go together as well as one might hope for.

But taking on one custom project at a time worked out ok for me. It was than that a church reached out to me asking me to build a complete set of furniture for them. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity in my mind, so I took it. They wanted me to make a very big preacher’s table, a candle holder, a smaller table, a book cabinet and some trays, all made from oak and epoxy resin. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy working these projects, but the deadline was killing me, especially when my second child was born 2 months ago!

So what is my take on this? Although the money is great, I have decided to scrap doing custom projects for my customers. I decided that I didn’t love doing these projects more than just making what I love and sell them when they’re done!

Especially when I also decided to become a YouTuber. I really want to focus on that rather on spending time making projects I don’t enjoy as much! What I am trying to say is, just do what you love. Don’t fall in the trap of making as much money as possible, especially when it takes out the fun of woodworking!

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