My Wife Had a Baby, I Got Fired, and Now We Have an Art Studio

Shortly after his wife had a baby, Kevin Nordstrom got fired from his job. Instead of giving up on himself, he chose to start his own business.  

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Two years ago I married the love of my life. A year later we bought a house. A year after that we had our first baby, a son. Everything seemed to be falling into place.

Then, without explanation, I got fired.

I’d been at my job for seven years. I was an illustrator and designer for a custom design company and, speaking modestly, I was one of the best they had. I was always given the specialty projects like creating a massive poster to be on stage with Aerosmith, doing the illustrations of the salespeople and artists for the website and I was given any difficult customers that were hard to please. I even officiated the wedding for one of the relatives of the owner of the company.

But then, one Monday morning, I came in like normal and was asked into the manager’s office. This wasn’t uncommon as they pulled people in from time to time to discuss anything and everything so I had no reason to think anything was off. But then I was handed a letter, two checks and was told that “it just wasn’t working out.”

I asked if I’d done something wrong and my manager repeated, “It’s just not working out.”

I looked at her dumbfounded and said, “I – – I don’t understand…. I’m a good worker, I’m never behind and I barely even talk since I just keep my head down and do my work.”

Again, I was told, “It’s just not working out.”

I could’ve fought it…. But I didn’t. My job had a reputation for firing people out of the blue for bad reasons and so as I walked out of the office I kicked myself for having just given them a thank you card for being patient with me while using my time-off to accompany my wife on her visits to the doctor during the pregnancy.

I rolled things over in my mind, trying to think of anything I could’ve done to deserve something as intense as being fired. I’d never even been written up. Several years ago I was once asked to keep my talking to a minimum because I was being loud. After that I resigned to keep my head phones on and focus on my work and since then I hadn’t received any kind of indication that I’d done anything that would jeopardize my job.

I had butt heads with my manager in the past but it was always in a professional manner. I had attempted to point out several issues with the business and even offered ideas on how to fix them and ways to allow the business to grow and expand. But sadly, most of them were either ignored or only half-heartedly implemented.

Eventually I gave up trying to fix things altogether and just focused on doing my job well, resigned to the fact that the place wouldn’t ever fix itself with its current management team. I’d privately started writing something to give to the owner about ways he could exponentially increase productivity and all my ideas to grow but, ironically, I never gave it to him for fear of getting fired since it would surely point out a great deal of mistakes with my bosses.

I still have the documents from interactions with my boss because I emailed them to myself just in case I was ever accused of being unprofessional and I still have the unfinished document to the owner outlining all the place’s issues and steps to correct them. I went back and forth on whether or not to contact the owner myself and lay out my horror at the idea of firing one of their top employees after seven years of work without a single reprimand or explanation. I could possibly get my job back.

On the drive home I called my wife and explained what happened. We both had a miniature meltdown which wasn’t good for either of us. I suffer from schizophrenia and stress is one of the biggest triggers for my symptoms. We had a mountain of hospital bills, a mortgage and a new baby on top of which my wife was still home on maternity leave which meant she wasn’t getting her full paycheck.

But after we’d gotten the panic out of our system, my wife and I started talking about where to go from here. Would I try to get my job back? Would I even want to? After all, my boss apparently wanted me gone and the constant stress of trying to do a good job while so many others half-assed their own workloads without a worry or care could be overwhelmingly stressful, especially at moments when my mental illness was giving me a hard time.

That’s when we decided to start looking forward, rather than backward. There were other jobs I could find, but more than that we had a plan for something better.

The past several months we’d been passively putting together a business idea based on my children’s illustrations and stories along with my wife’s sculptures, crafts and paintings. I’d done some freelance work on the side but I never dove in completely because the set routine of a day to day job was better for me mentally. But now… now I was free to explore.

In less than a day I’d signed a contract to illustrate a children’s book with a publisher, I have another book that’s set to begin in the next few months, I got recruited into a freelance group that regularly doles out well-paying projects on top of my already weekly comic strip assignment for Ravishly.com and then I set about building our business.

It would be called Whimsical Mischief Studio!

I created two characters, Whimsy and Mischief to be our mascots, made a Facebook page and two online stores to sell our products. One on Etsy which sells original pieces of art and handmade products and one on Zazzle which allows me to put my art on posters, t-shirts, cell phone covers and so much more!

Since then, I’ve put my old job behind me and have begun to look forward. It’s absolutely terrifying and there are still days where the stress is so overwhelming that it’s a struggle to stay positive let alone keep my mind from swirling out of control but together, my wife and I, are not giving up.

I’ve applied to several jobs in hopes of getting back to a more stable routine but my current freelance workload has been doing a good job of keeping us going for now.

In the end, it seems, that losing my job was a blessing in disguise. It forced me to buckle down and build a business that I’d been dancing around for some time. To really give my passion a chance to blossom and guide my way more than fear.

Even better than that, I’ve gotten to spend more time with my wife and son while she’s still home on maternity leave. I missed him terribly while I worked so to have him just a room away all the time has been beyond wonderful.

In the mornings we wake up and have coffee and breakfast together. I sit and hold my son while we watch an episode of the 90’s Batman cartoon, more for my enjoyment than his. Then I head into our office and set to work, creating new products, stories and art that is meant to have a little something for everyone in the family.

It’s been slow-going at first, attempting to get the word out and help our business find its niche but I’m glad to be focusing on work that I love. We’re starting a Go Fund Me to help us buy art and business supplies (that stuff’s expensive) and to help us build a whole website that when complete will have free coloring pages for kids, whimsical statues and a myriad of other products to decorate your house, garden, front porch, child’s room or your work desk and even fun activities for parents to do with their children to help them grow.

I don’t know what the future holds for us but I’m going to hope that with some serious hard work making the decision to look forward and not backward was the right one. I truly believe in the art that we’re doing and I hope more than anything that it shows through and that, very soon, when I publish our first book under the Whimsical Mischief name it’ll be welcome in so many homes as a first step towards a future much bigger and brighter than the past we’ve left behind.

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Photo Credit: Kevin Nordstrom/Stuck In Traffic