What to do With a Failed Project
Failure. It happens. No one sets out to fail. We strive to do our best, to build our vision, to succeed, but it doesn’t always work out that way. You can execute perfectly, build the piece exactly as we had it in your head, but it can still be a failure because it never achieved the ultimate goal.
In my case, I achieved my vision and made coasters exactly the way I wanted them to look. I wanted the coasters to have the wood running diagonally across the square giving them a unique look. After making a set I showed them off to friends and received great feedback which gave me confidence so I went into full production mode.
They were the first product I marketed. I sold 4 sets through Etsy, but I made enough for 20 or so sets of four.
There were a couple of struggles with the product. One, I made them out of reclaimed cedar fencing. Cedar already has lots of flaws in it, especially the rough saw fence boards. Add reclaimed on top of that and there were various pits, bug holes, and knots that caused about 50% of the coasters to be trash right off the bat.
I could work past that because I had so many of them. I discarded the bad ones and kept the good ones. No big deal, I still had plenty to sell.
For months, I had a stack of these things sitting on my bench as a reminder to keep trying. I monitored and tweaked my Etsy listing. I shared the listing on my social media pages. I asked friends and family to check them out. And they sat.
Eventually I needed the bench space, so I moved them to a box and threw them under my bench. The Etsy listing expired and I forgot they even existed until one day I was cleaning up and dragged the box out to find them amongst other saved scraps.
Ultimately, the coasters went from the scrap box to the fire bin. It was a hard decision. I had high hopes for these coasters. I spent time making them. I worked out a process to cut, sand, and finish the coasters efficiently and spent hours doing so. I wasn’t just throwing away an object, I was throwing away my time, energy, and pride.
But what good were they doing sitting in a box, unsold, taking up space. They failed. They didn’t fulfill my ultimate goal. I needed to cut my losses and move on.
In the end I did enjoy them as fuel for a backyard fire. Was I disappointed in the failure? Yes. Do I have regrets? No. I learned what didn’t work so next time I can do better.
It’s not bad to try something and fail. It is bad to continue to waste time on the failure. You have to know when to cut your losses and move on to the successful project. In my case, after I stopped worrying about Etsy, I landed my first commissioned job, the Walnut Entry Bench. Then moved on to preparing for a craft show which landed me another commission. Now I’m booked out with jobs for the next two months with leads on future jobs. Finding out what works and focusing on it is great, but first you have to do what doesn’t work and know when to move on.