This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there, greetings. Thank you for tuning in today. My name is Chris Guillebeau, your host of Side Hustle School. And this is, of course, our segment known as Failure Friday, coming to you every Friday, conveniently packed between Thursday and Saturday. And the whole point here is that we can learn as much from failure as we can from success.
Now we're often talking about success and telling you amazing stories of people making all kinds of money and quitting their jobs sometimes and having dance parties when they have their first sale or get their first client. But I think it's so important to look at the struggles that happen along the way. So this is a collection of short stories about mistakes, missteps, disasters, and of course, failure. Now these stories vary, but often they start with an idea and then the idea meets reality and you hear what happens and then, of course, what someone learned. So today's short story features Danielle Winton.
She's the owner of wintonfurnishing.com. We told the story of her success in episode 1688, I believe, 1688, ESL teacher re-sells furniture for big profits. Now, business continues to pace. She's doing well, reselling lots of furniture, presumably for big profits. But as her confidence grew, she took on one project that proved to be a bit too ambitious.
So she'll tell us the story. Here's Danielle. [Music]
My name is Danielle Winton and I own Winton Furnishing. Winton Furnishing services the mid-Missouri area by providing gently used and new furniture to people at an affordable price. In addition, I've also done upholstery, listed items online on behalf of clients and I've dabbled in painting solid wood pieces.
One day, I came across a free large wooden dresser online that was about a 25 minute drive away. I decided I wanted to pick it up and try to restore it by staining it. I follow a lot of furniture flipping groups and I saw what other women can do to give a piece of furniture new life. Once I arrived to pick it up, I noticed the bottoms of the drawers were coming apart. I had fixed drawers in the past, so I figured I would be able to do the same with this dresser.
Once I got it home, I was on my own to move it. After taking the drawers out, I still had to use a dolly to get it moved, which was exhausting, considering I had to take it up some stairs. Then it was time to start the process of sanding, priming, staining and sealing the wood. I had recently bought an orbital sander, but I found it difficult to use since it only had one speed. I also found out the hard way that the sandpaper I bought was cutting too deep into the wood.
I was slowly recognizing how much finesse was needed just to sand it down properly. Things kept getting worse with this project. Although I had sanded the piece outside, I didn't wear a mask, and I inhaled large amounts of sawdust. That evening and the next day, I became very sick, and I believe it was linked to breathing in so much debris. At this point, I began to realize how much I didn't know about what it takes to restrain a piece of furniture.
I ended up ditching the project altogether and gave the dresser away. I learned two valuable lessons. First, I learned how to narrow down what items I would look for in the future. Instead of looking at dressers that needed to be restained, I tend to look for items that can be painted or cleaned up instead. In other words, I learned what my strengths and weaknesses were.
Second, I learned that it makes a lot of sense to give up on something that's not working. So often, we hear things like don't give up and keep working at it, but it's not always applicable. Sometimes the best thing you can do is stop wasting time on something that isn't working to move on to better, more profitable endeavors. [Music]
Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. Yes, 100% real winners give up all the time.
I love that advice. It's something that I try to remind people of frequently because they just tend to get entrenched, you know? And it's so valuable to step away. So I applaud you, Danielle. Thank you for sharing that story.
I hope you're feeling better as well after that meal of sawdust. That doesn't sound fun, but hopefully it's all over. Check out Danielle's website at wintonfurnishing.com. She offers gently used and new furniture at an affordable price, specializing in the mid-Missouri area. So if you happen to be nearby, go pick up some gently used and new furniture at an affordable price.
Also, if you have a question for us or an update about your side hustle, let me know what you're working on, what's going well and what's not, sidehustleschool.com/questions. That's all for today, but I hope you'll subscribe, come back, join me tomorrow. Another episode coming out every single day. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
[Music]
From the Onward Project.
