We were lucky to catch up with Julian Gardea recently and have shared our conversation below.

Julian, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

I believe everyone has a different view of success, both in themselves and in others. Some perceive the ultimate goal as the destination, others as the journey itself, and for many, it’s an evolving concept.

For me, personally, success is an ever-changing challenge. It’s a rollercoaster of emotions and struggles but ultimately a test that can be overcome—if you don’t give up.

There were times when I faced challenges that didn’t make sense and impacted me negatively. But suddenly, like a lightbulb moment, those experiences became valuable tools for achieving my goals, pursuing my passions, and building my business.

Ultimately, success—or the pursuit of it—is about using everything you’ve ever learned to start your business. But you have to take the first step by actually trying. Because you’ll never know if you don’t.

For me, I have big goals for myself and for my brand, The 8th House. In my mind, and on my wall, there’s a spider web of business ideas, multi-industry platforms, products, real estate, and more. While it’s good to dream big and look far into the future, I also need to ground myself in reality. I have to remind myself: I need to start small.

And then comes the big, scary question: How?

The answer is simple: Use what I know, and for what I don’t, learn.

We live in an age where information is easy to discover and often free. Regardless of the industry, you want to be successful in, there are books, articles, videos, websites, and people talking about it on social media. While an idea is a good first step, it cannot be your only step. The path to success looks different for everyone—some steps are easy, some take time to understand, and others are hidden, waiting to be discovered. The best steps are those that don’t exist yet because the challenge is to create them yourself, opening up new possibilities and better paths forward.

Success, to me, isn’t about fancy cars or a big bank account. It’s about dying happy with what I’ve created for myself and for the benefit of others.

Basically, it’s better to go to the grave “trying” than with a mind full of “woulda, coulda, shoulda.”

The feeling of never making that first step toward success is far worse than failing.

At least when you fail, you can try again with new lessons learned. I’ve failed many times, but I’ve gained so much more in return.

Julian, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Officially, I have a B.A. in Anthropology. Since I was young, I wanted to be an archaeologist, but as with life, things don’t always turn out the way you expect. So you adapt to survive—you evolve, or you go extinct. You have to!

Through these challenges, I found myself exploring new worlds that opened up new ideas and passions for a better future.

I moved from the service industry—serving tables, bartending, catering, and retail—into work at museums, auction houses, and an archive. Along the way, I used skills I had learned from all my jobs. Whether it was customer service, dealing with unruly patrons, photography, photo editing, film editing, or researching antiques and vintage items, I realized that what some might see as unrelated skills were actually vital to my business today.

The 8th House specializes in antiques, vintage items, and art. In this industry, you need to be a jack of all trades. And I started small!

I originally lived in Austin, Texas (I’m from El Paso), but I lost everything I owned when my apartment ceiling collapsed into my living room. My insurance company had to destroy everything due to asbestos contamination. So, I moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, with nothing but my car and some new clothes—and no clear vision of what my future would be.

I was starting my life from scratch.

During my first year in Albuquerque, I worked at an auction house and met someone who introduced me to the world of antique malls. She later convinced me to lease a small space—just 35 square feet.

The name, The 8th House, comes from my zodiac sign, Scorpio. Each sign is governed by a numbered “house” representing certain traits, and Scorpio is under the 8th house. I liked the name’s mysterious undertone, which feels fitting when you’re hunting for antiques and discovering cool treasures. It rekindled my passion for archaeology—only this time, I was uncovering pieces of history through objects from estate sales and auctions.

I went through challenges like learning how to price items, write out tags, navigate the ups and downs of foot traffic, theft of my inventory, sales, and handle profits and losses. I had to figure out how to register for an LLC and deal with taxes. But with each lesson learned, I gained more repeat customers, and my vision for the future became clearer and more ambitious.

Over the years, I’ve become more selective with my inventory, learning what sells and what doesn’t. I refined my sales approach and even introduced mystery boxes to entice customers. Gradually, I moved into other malls with bigger spaces and better shelving units. I started with cheap plastic shelves, then moved to fiberboard, and now, in my own brick-and-mortar shop, I’ve upgraded to metal and glass with lighting. I’ve also learned how to stage antiques and furniture to create a compelling visual experience for my customers. I even learned how to rewire vintage swag lamps (pendant lamps on a chain)!

It’s an incredible feeling when complete strangers come up to me and say, “You have an amazing collection!”

I still have a long way to go. I currently work full-time on weekdays, but I escape to The 8th House on weekends. Now, six months into opening my own brick-and-mortar store, I’m excited about where this journey is taking me.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

One of the harshest lessons I had to unlearn was that the “approach to success is universal.”

The idea that “I made it, and so can you! Just follow these easy steps…” didn’t resonate with me. I found it disheartening and, frankly, dishonest. This mindset led me to stress and depression because it created unrealistic expectations of success. Instead of clarity, it pushed me into a wall of confusion and made me feel even more lost.

I also had to learn, over the years, to take people’s claims to success with a grain of salt. It’s important to recognize the “snake oil salesman” mentality—whether it’s on the news, at a convention, or on social media, where someone’s driving a fancy car, walking on a pristine beach, or showing off a shopping spree. It’s often not as real or honest as it seems.

Through working for other companies, I learned to spot the red flags of how not to run a business. So many times, I found myself saying, “If I had a business, I would never treat my employees or customers like that!”

Success, in itself, is an ever-evolving, ever-changing concept. It’s shaped not only by the product, the building, or the equipment but also by the mindset of its creator, the satisfaction of its customers, and the well-being of its employees.

I believe success is also measured by the quality of happiness—of everyone involved. A successful company, and a successful person, understands that there is no final destination for success.

Even for me, after years of ups and downs, highs and lows, good times and bad, profits and losses, pulling out the key to my brick-and-mortar shop doesn’t mark the end of my journey. It’s not the culmination of a “success story”; it’s simply one of many goals I’ve accomplished.

The journey is never over. There’s always another hill to climb, and I know there will be a mountain behind it, bringing new challenges, new skills to learn, and an unseen finish line that keeps moving forward.

The pursuit for success is an adventure.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I feel like in all three aspects—business, career, and life—there have been so many pivots that I can’t seem to narrow down the “ultimate” story.

What I can say, though, is that there’s no clear separation between business, career, and life. In many ways, these pivots bleed into each other, for better or worse. Any change, whether good or bad, requires a Plan B, C, and D—and even then, you need to be prepared to come up with a plan after Z.

Because no matter how many stories of success or failure you hear or read, your own pivot in business, career, and life will be uniquely yours. Ultimately, it will come down to your personal experiences and the skills you’ve learned that will help you navigate and create the outcome.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://t8h.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/t8habq
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/t8habq
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-8th-house-albuquerque-2
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@t8habq

Image Credits

All images by Julian Trinidad Gardea | The 8th House