Page 216 - The $100 Startup_ Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love

HOW TO SUCCEED EVEN IF YOUR
ROOF CAVES IN ON YOU.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it
living someone else’s life.”

—STEVE JOBS

Almost everyone we’ve met in the book so far has some kind of failure-to-

success story. In many cases, the story is about a product launch that fell flat, a
partnership gone wrong, or the loss of motivation for the wrong project. “I tried
something and it didn’t work out … but then I moved on to something else” is a
common refrain. All these stories are valid and interesting, but I’ve never heard
a rise-from-the-ashes story quite as compelling as that of John T. Unger, a
sculpture artist from a small town in Michigan. John’s story is a tour de force of
failure and fear that turned into resilience and success.

As John tells it, the third best thing that ever happened to him was having the
roof of his studio collapse from under him while he was standing on it,
frantically trying to shovel snow. The building was completely destroyed, and
John spent the rest of the Michigan winter alternating between shivering while
he worked and warming himself with an illegal unvented kerosene heater. It was
a nightmare scenario, but then a funny thing happened: The bank came out to
assess the damage and gave him a $10,000 commission. John used the
commission as a down payment on two buildings he had been trying to purchase
for a while. “I don’t think the bank would have gone for the deal without the
disaster,” he says. “It forced them to take a real look at my business instead of