Meet Lorenzo Viney

We recently connected with Lorenzo Viney and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Lorenzo with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

I’ve always had a strong work ethic for almost my whole life, it’s something that I take heavy pride in. Back home I started my own handyman service where people would give me projects like furniture or repairs and I would just work non stop. I would spend endless hours creating beds, desks, cabinets, anything that people didn’t feel like doing I did all the hard work for them. This desire to work, especially anything hands on, is like a supportive addiction that only grows with time. It went along with my snow shoveling services where ended up shoveling 20 houses in 1 week. I had no reason to stop, no reason to act tired or anything of the sort. Knowing that I am most likely the youngest hard working snow shoveler in my town on a snow day makes me feel accomplished. This only got stronger coming into college where I take my furniture classes, a passion I hope to become my permanent career. I get so caught up on work I can spend days in the woodshop unbored and working the tireless hours away. Sometimes I may even overpack myself with too much work where I end up running out of time on projects. Knowing what my passion is only helps me understand that the more work I do here learning, that better furniture maker and designer I will becoming in the future. I’ve learned from myself that my desire to do more and improve will only strengthen as time goes on where no one will be able to top how much work I’m able to handle.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

Craft work is the most perfect form of art. It exemplifies the human minds ability to be able to create anything from, anything. My work as a furniture designer is an art form in which I was given the gift of being able to pursue and my passion only grows. I first started as a handyman doing assembly jobs which led to me crafting my own projects in my high school woodworking class. Then I invested in some machines to be able to create cutting boards in my parents boiler room. Once I was tired of that space, I found a community woodshop called Makers Junction that had ever tool needed for a successful business. After that my career blasted off, creating tables, chairs, cutting boards, charcuterie boards, whisky flights and so many more in the 3 years I’ve been at it. My absolute favorite part about my career are th0se early days of going into the shop. It’s quiet, open, freeing, and just makes me motivated to spend my whole day making progress on all of my projects. There’s also the delivery of my finished projects, seeing peoples eye’s light up looking at their all original one-of-a-kind piece is something I could never forget. It goes for me as well since I’ve recently created my own collection of furniture I call Serengeti Vibes, complete with a live edge Pecan waterfall desk, Black walnut epoxy coffee table, and a Black Walnut side table all uniquely created by me. If my own pieces can give people the joy of owning a Lorenzo Viney original table, I feel like I have succeeded in what I strive to do in my life.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

To be successful, people need to realize that their mindset may have to change as they deal with new opportunity’s. For me, there are a few areas in my career that I had to really think about and alter to become a better business owner. One is to be able to handle criticism from your peers, two is to ask as many questions as possible, and three is to fail, fail, and fail again.

Criticism is a difficult area for lots of people as it makes them seam like others are looking down on their work like it’s a piece of trash. But criticism is extremely important since it’s the only way to understand how one can improve on work that’s already been made. Other people can see things in a very different way then you, if you can fully understand how people think, taking as much criticism as possible can only help you.

Asking questions is a wonderful tool if people use it in the right ways. People who have similar experiences and careers as us may have lots of knowledge that we could never imagine. Asking a question could completely change the direction of your understanding on a topic, so never be scared to speak up. Again, people only want to be able to help, so ask as many questions as possible!

And finally, failing. People need to understand that failing does not equal giving up, failing at something is extremely necessary to be able to learn how to be better. If you go in with the mindset that you have to do everything perfectly the first time, you’ll see that you have no motivation to continue once that inevitable fail happens. Failing at something will make you more knowledgeable on whatever happened because you now know what not to do which is needed in every career.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

Overwhelming feelings can take control of anyone, no matter how strong they are. It can completely stop all progress on projects making you feel stuck and unable to do anything. I’ve learned that staying in the same environment that caused this overwhelming feeling will only get worse the longer you stay in it, so the best thing to do is to get out of that environment. Going out for walks, relaxing reading a book at a coffee shop, hanging out with friends, all of these environments are available for everyone to get their mind off whatever it is they were overwhelmed about. Most likely this overwhelming problem can be solved very easily, but it’s only when you leave that space, take a long break and calmly thing about the problem can people fully understand what they need to do. We can work tirelessly for hours and hours at a time, but we all deserve a good break to relax our brains before they become overloaded.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://LorenzoViney.com
• Instagram: @Lorenzo_Viney

Image Credits

Lmani Viney