I wish this was a victory post.
It isn’t.It’s something more useful.
Seven weeks ago, I set clear goals for this project.
100 published designs.
A completed social media campaign.
$100 in revenue.
None of those goals were reached.
If you only look at the targets I set in January, then yes — the project failed.
But that’s not the whole picture.
I haven’t given it the focused attention it actually requires.
The past weeks haven’t been clean.
Two rounds of being sick.
Extra shifts at work.
And a significant amount of time building the infrastructure of Hamster Wheel Exit — security, SEO, structure, systems.
Infrastructure doesn’t sell t-shirts.
But it builds foundations.
Still, there’s a deeper layer here.
This phase has forced me to reconsider the creative direction behind Once A Rebel.
The original concept was built around designs I created years ago.
Some of them still work.
Some of them don’t.
More importantly, the positioning may have been too narrow — and too personal.
If this is going to work long-term, it needs to evolve into something more commercially grounded and less emotionally tied to who I was 15–20 years ago.
Because when the direction isn’t fully aligned — even in a commercial project — motivation becomes fragile.
And without motivation, momentum disappears.
So no, I’m not shutting this down.
For now, Exit Lab Project #1 moves off-stage.
Not cancelled.
Not abandoned.
I’ll keep working on it quietly.
Testing, adjusting, and rethinking the direction.
Because I don’t believe print-on-demand is the problem.
The positioning is.
Seven weeks isn’t enough to judge a business.
But it’s enough to recognize when something needs refinement — not force.
I’ve told you about three of the goals.
There was a fourth:To inspire you to test your own ideas.
Because building in public isn’t about perfect numbers.
It’s about honest adjustments.