Whatever’s happened didn’t happen like I thought it would. Nor did it happen fast. Nor have I seen any of it coming.

I graduated from medical school at The University of Oklahoma, then completed a psychiatry residency at The University of California, Irvine, and earned my board-certification. It was September of 2022. I’d been living inside medicine for over eight years. And get this: I never wanted to be a doctor. (It’s a long story, and a story I’ve written about extensively).

My family wanted me to be a physician. I wanted to make my family happy because I loved them. Throughout my medicine odyssey, I just knew I’d be able to figure out a way to be happy while keeping everyone else happy inside my life as a physician. I’d never been so wrong; turns out, that was impossible. It was in September of 2022 that I finally understood something that changed my life: I am only capable of being who I am. I couldn’t control others’ happiness more than I could control the wind.

So, I quit. I left a $400,000 per year job while owing $200,000 in student loans to the government. I had to go figure out who I was. Gratefully, I have a wife who believes in me.

One day in the aftermath of my mid-life crisis, I was walking through our neighborhood in Santa Barbara, California (where we lived at the time), when I passed an abandoned children’s picnic table. It was structurally intact. Sure, the paint was peeling, but otherwise, this table obviously had life left to live. I carried it home, worked on it casually in the evenings, then sold it for $60 to a daycare in town.

Out of work and in need of income, I found furniture piece after piece, adding to my skills and refinishing repetoire with each completed job. Six months later, I’d sold dozens of desks, dressers, and side tables. Along this journey, I never knew I’d become a furniture restoration professional; all I knew was that I felt like myself while I worked on furniture.

When my wife and I moved to Asheville in 2023, I dove deep down the rabbit hole of North Carolina’s rich furniture manufacturing history. In those first few months, I delved into refinishing and repair textbooks, learning as much as I could. I developed relationships with mentors in town who graciously showed me the ropes of launching a furniture refinishing and restoration company. I leased a vendor booth at The Regeneration Station in November of 2023, where I could showcase my work, and ever since, I’ve been selling restored furniture and completing commissioned work in the community.

I love the first phase of uncertainty when a new piece arrives into my workshop. Sometimes it’s clear how to proceed, but mostly, it’s a murky mess. If I stay patient and allow the fog to clear, the piece always shows me what it deserves.

My mission is to execute on that vision with every piece of furniture I refurbish, repair, or refinish. Then, do it over and over again, continuing to follow the work that delivers me back to myself.

(Wondering what it might cost to revitalize your family heirloom? Or a treasure you found at Goodwill or Habitat Restore? Get your free consultation here.)