e caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jay Miron a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jay, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Looking back, what’s an important lesson you learned at a prior job

I’m a retired professional BMX rider with six world championship titles to my name. Early on in my professional career I realized that talent only gets you so far. Once you’re competing at the highest level, everyone has talent, everyone has work ethic, and everyone is good. Everything matters! I understood that if I was going to be successful, it wouldn’t happen on talent alone. It was going to take everything I had in me.

For sixteen years I traveled the world, and lived my dream. My career ended up becoming way more amazing than I ever dreamed it could be. All of that happened because I had talent and was willing to outwork my peers.

That lesson has been a valuable tool for me in my new career, especially after a bad day. I always come in the next day fired up to try harder and give it everything I have.

Awesome – So before we get into the rest of our questions, Can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers, and tell about how you got started.

I design and build hand crafted furniture.

After a 16 year career as a professional bmx bike rider, I retired from riding and started working full time in the cycling industry. I knew the industry inside out, I knew everyone in the industry, I was pretty good at my job, I was successful, but it wasn’t fulfilling for me. I didn’t like sitting at a desk, I didn’t like working on a computer, I didn’t want to travel anymore, I didn’t like doing sales, etc. I didn’t hate it, but it wasn’t the life I wanted to live anymore. I needed a change. I was also struggling with the effects of the many concussions I suffered during my riding career. It was affecting my work and my working relationship with my partners. On Nov. 16 2009, I sold my stake in the company I owned, to my partners, and walked away from it completely, with no clue what I’d do next. To say it was scary would be a huge understatement. I was lost and terrified.

About three weeks later, the dust settled, and I began thinking about my next career. Nothing seemed to make sense though. I decided to break it down to how I wanted to live my life. I made a list of things that were important to me in a potential new career.

It had to be creative.
It had to be physical but not hard labour, (my beat up body couldn’t handle it.)
A consistent schedule. (I love 9 to 5)
No computers
No desk
Not a lot of people around.
No travel Believe it or not, after years of traveling the world riding my bicycle, I just want to stay home and keep a regular routine.
No parties, I was partied out after the cycling industry. I was looking forward to living a good clean life.

I took this list and made another list of potential new careers. Then researched all of them to see which one fit my criteria best.

Restaurant owner. I read a book on owning a restaurant. Late nights and lots of drinking wasn’t going work for me.

BNB in the country owner. I spent most of my adult life staying in hotels. I knew the business well, but I was still single at the time and didn’t want to live alone in the middle of nowhere.

Yoga teacher. I love yoga and do it every day but it’s tough to make a good living at it.

Interior designer. This one checked a lot of boxes but it required way too much time at a desk on a computer.

Concrete counter top maker. This one checked a lot of boxes. I actually took a course in California and made my own concrete countertop for my home. It was super fun, but concrete weighs a lot. My first project consisted of two sections that weighed 400 and 600 lbs. That just wasn’t going to work for me.

Kitchen cabinet maker. This was also a strong contender. While I was researching schools, I came across the Inside Passage School of Fine Cabinetmaking. It turns out, the traditional name for a high end woodworker is a cabinetmaker. This was a very high end woodworking and furniture making school located on the Sunshine Coast. I called the school and scheduled a visit. During my visit, I was inspired and amazed by the work being produced. Most of the 17 students weren’t even from Canada. They came from all over the world to learn at this school. A career as a furniture designer / maker checked every box. The fact that one of the best schools in the world was so close to home made it a slam dunk.
The following September I showed up for my first day of two intense years of woodworking school. I dove in head first and gave it my all!
While I was at school, I read about fifty books on design, interior design, colour theory, furniture styles, furniture history. etc.
After I completed my second year at Inside Passage, I began taking interior design classes and art classes back in Vancouver. During this time I was slowly buying up woodworking machines from Craigslist and keeping them in a storage unit I rented. After I had most of the machines I needed, I found a warehouse space and began setting up shop.

In January of 2014 I began building furniture. At first I built based on what I learned at school, It was good, but it didn’t quite have that something special that separated me from the pack. Then I designed and built the first Orca Lounge Chair. This changed everything. It was the first piece I built that I built with my heart. It had an organic and sculptural shape and was super fun to build. I had found my voice as a designer, I really enjoyed the process and got excited to push further in this direction. Nearly ten years later I’ve become known for this style. Most of what I sell are chairs with organic, free flowing lines.

Style is only part of it though. I approach design with the belief that originality, comfort, beauty, function and strength must all be considered in equal measure. My goal is to bring these five elements into balance with each piece I produce ensuring my furniture will serve its purpose for at least as long as it takes another tree to grow.

On top of that I’m proud to be working with a company called veritree. Through veritree a portion of proceeds from each sale I make, goes towards planting trees in eastern Canada, where most of the good furniture wood comes from in our country.

Most of my days now are spent in my shop working with my small crew of well trained craftspeople building very high end furniture for clients who are just as passionate about owning furniture as we are of making it.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

In every job or career I’ve ever had, speed and efficiency was very important. I’ve always worked hard and got a lot of work done as quickly as possible. That’s how I achieved a lot of my success over the years.

With my new career as a high end furniture maker, speed kills. I have to work slowly and carefully. Working with power tools that have sharp blades can be dangerous if I’m not working slowly and carefully. Also, people aren’t paying me to rush and get their furniture built quickly. They’re paying for perfection. That level of work takes time and focus.

Slowing down might sound easy, but it wasn’t for me. It took a lot of concentrated effort to slow down and relax while I work. I’ve made a lot of progress with this, but it continues to be something I work towards. There’s a saying attributed to the American Nave Seals, “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.” Every time I catch myself rushing, I think of this saying and calm myself.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I funded my new business as a furniture maker from savings I had from my Athletic career. A lot of my peers started making good money and spent it almost as quickly. They bought the crazy sports car, started living an expensive lifestyle. I didn’t do that. I had fun, but I was always aware that my career wouldn’t last too long. The sport is too demanding physically. I’m lucky that I saved. It allowed me to spend two years going to school, invest in a beautiful woodworking shop and spend several years honing my craft before I felt the pressure to earn a living. My advice to other business owners that become successful is to save your money. Invest in a home and build up your savings. After you get the mortgage paid down and put a solid retirement plan in place, then you can buy a few toys and reap the rewards of your hard work and success.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jaymiron.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jay__miron/

Image Credits
All photos by FM Photographics, except for the four colour coffee table. That photo is by Haruki Noguchi.