About ten years ago, my brothers called me in a panic. Their CBD farm had a frost coming in seven days, their harvest machine wasn’t working, and they needed a miracle. I had zero farm equipment experience… but I was “the engineer,” so I did what engineers do: raided the shop, built something questionable in three sleepless days, and shipped it out.

It didn’t work.

Well, not really. They Frankensteined part of my machine onto theirs and completed the harvest. Technically a win. However, as a mechanical engineer it was a disappointment.

I was convinced there was a real product there. So, I spent the next year doing what many of us do: refining a fundamentally bad design. New mechanisms. More parts. More cleverness. Less progress.

Then life hit hard. My brother I had been working with unexpectedly passed away, and the project sat untouched for two years.

When I finally came back to it, the CAD files looked like a hot mess. I had poorly thought-out fixes on top of Bad Design Fundamentals. I had been so attached to the work I’d already done that I never stopped to ask the basic question:

 Was the core idea even right?

It wasn’t.

The machine couldn’t even pull the plant stem properly. All my fancy stripping mechanisms were pointless without a basic working design. So, I did the hardest thing an engineer can do:

I hit the delete button and started over.

I focused on the real problem (grip). Built a crude belt system. Ugly, simple, effective. From there, progress was fast. Prototype → production → lighter, cheaper, shippable product that actually worked.

Here’s the lesson:

Your old work is not sacred. It’s just tuition.

Manufacturing loves “greenfield” projects for a reason. No legacy constraints, no sunk costs, no attachment to bad decisions. Your competitors don’t inherit your past emotional connections. Only you do. You are in the best position to act right now. But if you don't, they will eventually figure out what you already know and leapfrog you.

If you’re stuck, ask yourself:

Am I improving the design… or protecting my past effort?

Get free access to the resources I put together to help you with the process of bringing a physical product to market: Resources