Those Who See Potential

I’ve been recently watching a show on YouTube called Epic Upcycling. This man of enormous talent makes furniture, cabinets for tool storage, jewelry boxes, and even reproduces a red British phone booth in every detail. What’s amazing is that he creates these things out of old skids, discarded furniture, scrap metal, and similar materials.

This man is to cabinet-making what Stevie Ray Vaughan was to guitar playing—for me, it’s a spiritual event. The time and detail he puts into every piece, often using antique tools to craft his own moldings and finishes, is incredible. Sometimes, he even assembles furniture without nails or screws. He conveys pride in workmanship, and he has inspired me to put more care into my own tool storage ideas.

He will make a cabinet with 35 drawers, each featuring dovetail joints. Other projects incorporate dado or rabbet joints, but the point is—he never uses a power nailer. If he uses screws, they are put in by hand. There is beauty in watching this process unfold. I imagine my grandfather working that way, and in contrast, today we seem to rush everything. That rush likely prevents us from achieving a high-quality finished product. Thus, a life lesson is learned: sometimes, good things take time to build, refine, and make beautiful.

We are a throwaway society. We discard so much, polluting our planet at a rapid pace. We should all learn to upcycle. The waste is staggering—have you ever watched renovation shows where perfectly good oak cupboards are torn down and replaced with cherry wood? Thousands of dollars spent just to hold glasses, cups, and dishes—it’s ridiculous.

There are other upcycling shows on YouTube, from places like Taiwan, India, and Vietnam, where people create incredible things out of skids, tires, cement, and tin containers. People used to get couches reupholstered because the quality made it worthwhile—now, we just throw them away. A little sanding, a little paint, stain, or varnish can bring new life to the things we own.

Just like a couple’s getaway might refresh a marriage or relationship, just like spending more time with your child, or just like taking the time to read a great book or knit a sweater—good things take the time they take. There is an inner peace in working on things you love, a quiet connection, and a respect for nature when you give something a second chance to be great and reach its potential—if the artist in you can see it.

I encourage you all to look up Epic Upcycling, and hopefully, it will inspire you as it did me, to see the potential in everything that surrounds us.