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I caught up with a young guy named Jack Candlish. We met up on an overcast Sunday afternoon at his workshop in Berhampore, Wellington. I’d got in contact with Jack a little bit earlier to find out if he was keen to sit down for a conversation which we could turn into a podcast episode. Turns out he was very keen.
The reason I wanted to catch up with Jack was to hear more of his story, and the story of his company, Organic Dynamic. What drew me to Jack was the concept, creating environmentally friendly surfboards out of recycled polystyrene, Paulownia timber and sustainable resin. It’s a different way of making boards to the usual method, one which has far less environmental impact. It’s been a “learn as you go” process for Jack as there aren’t many people out there making boards like this. The making of the boards is only part of the interesting stuff about Organic Dynamic. Jack is also developing the machine he uses to form the boards so that other shapers and makers from all over can work the way he does, without shipping surfboards all around the world. If you’re keen on the process he goes through then check out the podcast conversation we had.
The purpose of this piece isn’t to teach you how to make a board, go and see Jack and he can sort you out. It’s to have a think about Jack’s perspectives and processes. I’ve picked three out to have a think about, there are a lot more in episode for you.
“Learning the lesson then and there is lot better than learning it further down the track”
Jack has discovered that there is no short path to success, something that I’ve become more and more aware of. In the early days when he had a “failure” it would make him pretty pissed off, which I can definitely relate to. One of the most spectacular is when he had a top surfer trialling his board to get some pictures for marketing material. The surfer was making a heavy turn when his foot went through the board, this is back when Jack was still making his boards hollow. Obviously a failure from a structural point of view as well as not getting any pictures. He implemented the recycled polystyrene as the core to increase the solidity, but also keep the board lightweight. It was easy to sit and stew in that failure and the feeling of being pissed off, however it wasn’t overly productive. Every “failure” he went through was a step along the way to figuring out what would work. Jack went through making at least 12 surfboards in 18 months before coming to the current iterations. With each of these “failures” Jack took at least one learning away from it that he could apply to the next try. As he worked through this, Jack figured out that these were opportunities to learn, they still hurt in the moment, but he developed the understanding that they didn’t mean that this wasn’t something that wasn’t going to work in the long run, and it wasn’t something that made him a “failure” as a person. To learn these lessons early on allowed him to fix the problems that caused them and pushed him along the path more quickly. Had he held off and been afraid to fail then he wouldn’t have been able to improve and people he sold surfboards to might be putting their foot through them out in the ocean today. That could have been a disaster.
“The risk of playing it safe and taking everyone’s advice, is that the people giving the advice may not have the knowledge relevant to your situation”
Jack knew there was a lot he didn’t know during this journey, and admits there is still a whole lot he doesn’t know. He frequently went to people for advice to help him out along this path and to speed up the process for him. Some of this advice was very valuable and he was able to apply it to his situation to push him forward. However other bits of advice didn’t ring true for him. It took him a while to figure out why people he respected were telling him “you can’t do it this way” when he thought he could see a way through. While these people were knowledgeable, had “been there and done that”, and were people Jack had actively sought out to ask, they didn’t have his knowledge and experiences to call on. Jack’s unique skillset and experiences allowed him to look at a problem differently to other people, he knew about technologies and techniques they didn’t, and could see solutions where they couldn’t. Taking people’s advice is still important, especially if they’ve done what you are trying to do already as they will be able to offer guidance and can see things that you will miss. However they don’t have your skills, knowledge, and experience to apply to a situation so you’ll also be able to see options which they can’t. Take their advice but couple it with your knowledge and experiences to make your own decisions.
Perhaps the biggest idea I took out of our conversation was that Jack had figured out what he was excited by through trying out a whole lot of different things. He had a general idea of what he liked and initially headed in that direction. He headed to University to study design, and when he was killing time before he could finish his last paper he started building things in his parent’s garage for the bars he was working for. Before long he got pretty busy with this and ended up starting a business doing it and putting study on hold. Pretty soon Jack had figured out that he didn’t like the variability of all the things he was making and the amount of tools and space he needed to have on the chance he needed to build something he needed to use them on. He decided he wanted to build one type of product and become a master at it. While this was going on Jack had been falling back in love with surfing, and making surfboards seemed like a match made in heaven. Throughout this process Jack had headed for the next thing he felt curious about, first university, then making things, then starting a business before finally landing with Organic Dynamic. This is a process that isn’t finished for him, Jack admits he has other avenues of curiosity he wants to pursue from here. I’ve often heard of people telling others that they need to find their passion, and this is something that can make you feel like a bit of a failure if you don’t know what you are passionate about. I saw the passion in Jack as he showed me around what he was doing at Organic Dynamic, but this wasn’t an idea he had 7 years ago when he was hanging out to finish uni. He got to this point by following what he was interested in. So find what you are curious about and follow it. It’s going to change through the process so don’t be afraid to follow that change, and if you follow it for long enough you just might stumble across something you are passionate about like Jack did.
Check out our full conversation here.
Jack Candlish
Host: Chris Desmond
