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"It ain't about how hard you hit. It's about hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done."

Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa

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The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes.

Charles R. Swindoll, b.1934

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There has never yet been a man in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering.

Theodore Roosevelt

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I think there a few things necessary and sufficient to be wildly successful in a creative endeavor. They are: skill, willingness to do the work, taste, vision, and luck. Most people can directly affect the first 2 and maybe the second 2. The last is something that can only be planned and...

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In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.

Bill Cosby

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Students Suck at Perseverance.

I recently had a conversation with a few people regarding a student finding an internship. The argument was made that the student was inexperienced and was, therefore, unable to break into the industry. That last statement is what sets me off about this argument and what altogether proves it to be incorrect. I’d like to discuss my thoughts on the matter and hear a response. I ask only two things from whoever is reading this post. The first being that you read it in its entirety with an open mind and the second that you respond to your thoughts on the subject.

My Rebuttal.

I believe there is a reason why the term is tagged “break” into the industry. This isn’t an easy task and is labeled as such. Someone must, quite literally, break into the industry. You have to force your way in by means of hard work and dedication. Without hard work you will not be recognized as a formidable acquisition for a company and when it gets right down to it, that is the goal. A company doesn’t hire someone, because they need to fill a position. A company hires an individual because they believe it is the best move for the company.

It is for this reason that an individual must force their way into the company. You have to let them know that you are worth their time. Unfortunately in this case and in most industries, this is the difficult part. The company bases their knowledge of you on what a piece of paper says about you. In my industry (web development), this is far easier. We have portfolio websites that we can build and direct a company to so that they can literally see our abilities. They can then make a more accurate decision on what is best for their company.

The Problem.

Confidence! Students lack confidence, because they feel amateur. They don’t have adequate experience for an opportunity. They don’t have all of the skills on an opening announcement. This is a direct result of the people who are around these students and teach them. Some schools do a very good job of encouraging their students and telling them that they are doing great work. These students are looking at the work of professionals and are comparing their own work to these professionals who have been doing the same type of work for far longer.

This isn’t fair to the students! It’s a necessity for a student to have role model in the industry or someone that they aspire to match or best in skill. It is not, however, a necessity for that student to think that the work they do must be comparable to the work of their role models.

The Words of Ira Glass.

“Nobody tells people who are beginners, and I really, really wish somebody had told this to me… is that all of us who do creative work, like y’know we get into it and we get into it because we have good taste. But it’s like there’s a gap that the first couple years that you’re making stuff, what your making isn’t so good, OK? It’s not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not quite that good. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, your taste is still killer. And your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of a disappointment to you, y’know what I mean?”

“A lot of people never get past that phase and a lot of people at that point they quit. And the thing I would just like to say to you with all my heart is that most everybody I know who does interesting creative work, they went through a phase of years where they had really good taste and they could tell what they were making wasn’t as good as they wanted it to be. They knew it fell short. It didn’t have the special thing that we wanted it to have and the thing what to do is everybody goes through that. And for you to go through it, if you’re going through it right now, if you’re just getting out of that phase you’ve gotta know it’s totally normal and the most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work.”

“Put yourself on a deadline so that every week or every month you know you’re going to finish one story. Because it’s only by actually going through a volume of work that you’re actually going to catch up and close that gap. And your work you’re making will be as good as your ambitions. In my case, like I took longer to figure out how to do this than anybody I’ve ever met. It takes awhile. It’s going to take you awhile. It’s normal to take you awhile and you just have to fight your way through that. Ok?”

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You have the ability, right now, to exceed all your previous levels of accomplishment!

Brian Tracy

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I find in life that most affairs that require serious handling are distasteful. For this reason, I have always believed that the successful man has the hardest battle with himself rather than with the other fellow. To bring one's self to a frame of mind & to the proper energy to accomplish things that require plain hard work continuously is the one big battle that everyone has. When this battle is won for all time, then everything is easy.

- Thomas A. Buckner

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Whether or not you realize it, every decision you make is based on a few principles. The trick is that most people probably don’t live by the principles they think they do.

Here are a few of the ones I think (or hope) I live by:

The purpose of our lives is to be happy

Money is a tool, not a...

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The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

Alan Kay

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Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.

Aristotle

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Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today.

James Dean

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Think of the user!

Here I am, about to get to work, and I had a bit of a thought.

What makes for an engaging experience?

Is it the details? I'd like to use social networking as my example in this short discussion. Firstly, what has made social networks such a hot topic? What makes a social network (i.e. Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook) so engaging? What has made these so much more engaging than say... A forum?

I believe it's in the subtle additions. For example, I post on a forum and refresh a thousand times hoping someone sees it and responds to it. Many people may see the post and enjoy it as well, but they are reluctant to post their own opinion. However, in social networks, they have the like button, the retweet or the reblog. That's their way of enjoying a post without directly relating to the post in a response.

What about the fact that all of these networks use different technologies to make the experience instantaneous? I can hit "Tweet" and it shows up on my feed immediately. I no longer care to wait for a response. We lead busy lives these days. We don't have time to wait around for a response.

What do we have now that we didn't have when MySpace was huge and forums were the closest relative to a social network? The smartphone. Now, I can post it and forget it if the network has an app. Any and all responses come directly to my phone wherever I am.

So is it in the details? I think yes. Instant updates, positive reinforcement for successful actions and even smartphone applications. Our users are what makes us thrive on the Internet. We should definitely think of them when making something cool. If it's cool, but unusable, it's a waste and the only people impressed by it are the ones that know what it takes to make it.

My solution.

As you're planning out another awesome feature, stop and think about it. Does it make sense? Is it intuitive enough that your grandma can work it? Things can be awesome and subtle at the same time.

/endrant

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The most important factor of all is to be confident in what you are speaking about. Confidence goes miles. - Michael La Plante

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On risk...

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.

- Andre Gide

For the month of July, I won't write a long motivational post. The above quote really sums it up quite nicely. Instead, I will leave you with that quote (and one more) and challenge you.

This month, take a risk. Be it small or large, take a risk.

(NOT TELLING YOU TO RISK YOUR LIFE)

A professional risk. Go out of your comfort zone a bit and put something on the line to advance yourself and your career. Push forward. You'll get no where standing still and living in routine.

It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It's because we dare not venture that they are difficult.

-Seneca

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The Mobile version of a recent project I just finished.