Only the sick and twisted mind of Tom Iovino could come up with a gut-wrenching poll like this! So here’s the scenario, a billionaire comes to your shop and offers to buy out everything you’ve got. But there’s one big catch: you have to give up woodworking permanently!! How much would it take?
Considering this is not only my passion but my livelihood, I’m not sure I could ever give it up. Although for $100M, I could learn to like knitting.
This poll was created by Tom Iovino of TomsWorkbench.com.
This poll actually made me sad and sick. I think I would take the money, change my name and build another shop with my new inheritance where the billionaire would never find me.
the people that say “I could never give up woodworking” – not true. There’s a price for everything. It just wasn’t on the list for you to choose.
I would go auto racing or travel the world
Haha !!!! A few pizzas and some beer are good for me to give up wood working. No need of money , I am already billionaire.
one hundred million and I would give up wood working and take up timber art
Very timly for me, I just came into a large sum of money and am considering retirment of my wood working equipment and start to travel some more. We are loking at new homes but I am considering added space for a wood shop. It does really depend on the amount one has. If i got more I would retire and travel more. As it’s not enogh to retire on today it is enogh to take on other hobbies I couldn’t afford before…like owning a hotrod or building a kit car. Really does depend on the amount and what makes a person happy.
Given my current financial position of “just scratching by”…give me a million and Ill pay off my house, put a few hundred thousand in the bank, and build a shop to build boats. Ive been wanting to get into that anyway, the only thing holding me back is this Florida heat.
I said 10 million would be alright but now that I think about it more my wife and daughters would probably see all that and think its all theirs….so I would have to go with 100 million. Or maybe a private island for myself, then build an underground mancave so that way I could still work. Hummm. I think that could work.
I can’t afford to build a shed/shop. I can’t afford the machinery and with 2 kids under 3 I certainly can’t afford the time. £10m to give it all up so I can have the dream shop and time sounds nice. Hand built Heirloom furniture sounds nice but it’s Ikea for this household.
I’ll keep the kids and you can keep Demi and her £10m
I said a milion. I have dabbled in metalwork. I have a good interest in restoring cars but I have always said I have enough expensive hobbies to start another. A million would do it for me. BE SAFE. K
seeing its my job, for a 100 mil a would quit it and go fishing in the bahamas :)
just have to have enough to get into something else like metal working, building light aircraft, wooden boats, ah scratch that last one
Maybe I’m old fashioned but I can’t imagine taking money to give up anything I enjoy!Stop and think of the problems and concerns that would suddenly assuage you if you suddenly had $100M. Every Tom, Dick & Harry you have ever met would be begging you for handouts, you would have to tighten your personal and home security greatly – it just wouldn’t be worth it!
Sorry but the $100M could never replace the, “My father built this just for me.”
Yes it could. Instead they would say, “My father just gave me 1 Million dollars! HECK YEA!”
A father can still make stuff for his children that’s not wood. I think I would really get into blacksmithing.
Jonathan
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Clee I agree,
Nor could it replace, “My father and I made this together!”
Some good responses here, but…
Why would a billionaire want to buy all my used equipment?
I have always said that even if $100m landed in my lap I would continue to build furniture for the needy!
I usually also tell people that all I dream about is wood (sex, and wood working), I don’t think I could give it up even if I tried! Maybe if I figure someway woodworking underground!
Interesting that 10mil is in the lead.
days like today, a pizza and a few beers would do it. and I don’t even drink beer.
robert
I would hate to give it up but for $100M I could play some golf. I recently took a stained glass class; I could channel my hobby time that direction.
I would really like to say I would never give it up. But 100 million dollars is a lot of money, and can buy me a lot of surfboards and airline tickets.
My wife said she’d give a million dollars to keep me out of her way!
Ten million would set me up for a very long time, and buy some very nice camera gear…
A couple million could solve quite a few things for me and would provide enough capital that I would be able to migrate to a different hobbies. Woodworking runs in my family, so it might be difficult, but then again… With that much money, one could always construct an underground woodworking secret layer
I think everyone has a price. I would take the most and find a new hobby, may be come a metal smith or boat builder. Both sound like fun things to do.
AndyL.
Pizza, it is my weakness. I don’t even drink beer. :)
As much as I love woodworking, I love my family more. For $10,000,000 my wife and I would never have to work again, and we could spend more time together as a family. I could find another itch to scratch (drawing, blacksmithing, welding, etc.). I would miss it though.
Jonathan
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Like many of you, the more money I have the more WW I would be doing. How else will I ever pay for my dream shop?
Maybe I am just greedy… Anything north of $25k, and I am out. I probably have more than $10k invested in tools at this point, so that one’s out. But unless WW is your living, I can’t see not taking the money as a financially responsible thing to do. Plus, my wife would kill me for not taking the money, so I guess its a personal saftey issue too!
There are too many other things that I really enjoy doing to sit here and tell you that ten million dollars wouldn’t sway me away from woodworking. I’d be lying if I told you it wouldn’t. Not to mention the financial stability that comes along with it. Really…come on guys; would you really walk away from that?
10 mil would buy a great shop for working on cars.
I agree with Jim. And sign me up for an extra $10 mil, so I can get more interesting cars to work on.
Well, I recently started doing woodworking. $ 100M would be a huge capital gain, hum … after taxes that’s still good enough. Thanks for making me dream with open eyes…..
Marc,
are you offering to buy my shop for $100M!!?? lol.
hard question
$1 million, and I’ll start building my kit helicopter.
Give up woodworking?Give up being at your work bench and having your project morphology into something so much cooler and better than you planed? Give up being in the middle of building a project and have it tell you that it has an owner already even though you were making it for something else? Or seeing your dad get misty eyed over a gift you made him because he gets what you do? There is not enough money to make up for those things.
It might sound corny but I am not motivated by money. Never have been never will be. I would be a miserable rich person. To quote the late great Biggy Smalls ” Mo money mo problems.”
I am also not motivated by money. It is not why I did it in the first place.
You can take away all my machines and tools. But you cannot take away why I cut wood everyday.
You’re asking the wrong people. You should be asking our spouses.
If I take the $10 million can my wife take up wood working and I live vicariously through her as an “assistant”?
Im 15 and i wouldnt give up woodworking for $100M.
What if I took the 100 million and then called my new hobby “Tree Moulding”!
I like the tree moulding idea, chuckle
With a million bucks I would have all kinds of free time but nothing to do with it then, plus I would actually be able to afford some Festool products. So, this had to be a trick question right?
Can I use some of the money to build a woodworking shop that other people can use and see what sort of cool stuff they come up with?
What would I do with 100M if I couldn’t buy tools!!!
100MM I could find much more to do with my time An with that I would … Buy a house next door to you The WOODWHISPERER An build a nice high perch looking over into the shop so when I need a woodworking fix Ill sit in the perch with my sprit an remember when… WOW he never said I couldn’t look
That’s a very good question that for me, changes with the seasons. In the winter, I wouldn’t quit woodworking for anything. It’s practically all I think about. I’m still fairly stoked during spring but my interests are beginning to wander. By summertime I’m golfing, fishing, camping, etc. Around fall, I start to feel guilty for all the tools that are collecting dust and the many x-mas presents I should be making and then, as sure as the seasons change I find myself back in the shop wondering why I have been wasting my time with everything else when I could have been doing what I love to do most. (until spring)
My answer would change depending on how ticked off I was getting at whatever I was working on at the time!
So so true….
Not only would I not give up woodworking I would go and take classes with all the money you gave me and buy the tools I really want! I would also buy the shop space available around the corner and work at starting a woodworking guild! You all enjoy your fun in other things and James I would still sneak around or to of golf in!!
With $100M I could easily fake my own death, assume a new identity, and order lots of nice new Powermatic equipment. The billionaire would never know, shhhhh!
haha that sounds like a plan!
I feel that the question boils down to this: Are you financially stable enough that you can participate in an activity that you enjoy without it being a concern?
If you are, then there isn’t much reason to take the money. I can’t see people that truly enjoy woodworking taking any amount of money unless there were other pressing financial concerns in their life.
I understand your point, but I disagree with your question. I myself am financially stable enough to participate in woodworking as a hobby, without it being a concern. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have other financial issues or desires. On the other hand, if woodworking was my livelihood, and I had been doing it all my life, the decision may be a bit harder, as the real decision is whether or not I could accept such a change and not be miserable.
I think a better question would be, ‘Do any of your current or future financial goals out-weigh your need to do woodworking, being it as a hobby or something greater?’
If the answer to that question is Yes, then you do have a price. A million dollars is questionable for me, but for 10-million dollars I would be willing to give up a hobby; there are other outlets for personal expression.
It would suck to have to give up woodworking, though.
$100K and I’m switching to metalworking. :)
Seriously for a 100m people would not do it.. 1m and I’m playing golf
Since I am doing almost none right now, I guess the beer is enuf to keep me out of my not yet put together garage/shop.