Chris Salomone
Foureyes Furniture
Whittier, CA USA
"If you can’t put yourself out there for people to hate on it, then you can’t put yourself out there for people to love it. You just have to go for it."
Career Roadmap
Chris's work combines: Entrepreneurship, Design, and Building Things
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
Put yourself out there and promote your skills and talents. It can be scary to take that step, but the more that I've put myself out there, the more opportunities have come my way.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Economics, General
California State University, Fullerton
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life took a while to figure out
1.
My brother and I were the first in our family to graduate from college—my parents assumed I’d go to college, but I didn’t receive much guidance from them regarding majors, skills, or careers.
2.
After graduating from California State University, Fullerton, I actually worked at the university’s library for a few years.
3.
I decided to pursue a master’s degree in library information science, but wasn’t very passionate about it, so I started looking for other, more creative jobs.
4.
I left graduate school and got a job with the College of Humanities and Social Sciences doing graphic design and writing, which later turned into a marketing position.
5.
When I bought a house, I started designing furniture and loved it, so I took a few woodworking classes at a community college and found that I was good at it.
6.
Then I spent some time building furniture for commission but eventually got burnt out.
7.
While working on commissions, I started a YouTube channel about woodworking and design, which grew into my second job.
8.
When the opportunity to leave my day job presented itself, I took the risk; now I spend all my time running my YouTube channel—Foureyes Woodworking & Design—and furniture business—Foreyes Furniture.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Society in general:
You have to quit your day job to pursue your dream job.
How I responded:
A lot of people say that if you want to pursue your dream job, you have to quit your day job and go full-force into it. I don't believe in that. I worked full-time and grew my YouTube channel into a second full-time job. Looking back, I'm happy I did it that way because my day job gave me the financial stability and security I needed to feel safe enough working on my passions.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
My brother and I were the first in our family to graduate from college. Because of that, I didn't receive much guidance from my parents regarding what degree/career I should pursue.
I run my own business, so balancing my work and family can get hard. There are days when I don't get to put my kids to bed because I'm still working or I have to go back to work after putting them to bed. It takes effort to balance those priorities.