Time For a Change
Sunday March 14, 2010
Nothing puts a person to action more than the feeling of desperation. Unfortunately, I think I may be there. A little background of how I got to where I am at now. I have been a Union Ironworker with Ironworkers Local 55 for 13 years. It’s a great paying job! Although, it does have it downsides. There is a lot of travel, no real seniority, insecure employment, and it is very hard on the body. During one of my layoff stretches, I started to play with websites. One thing led to another and before I knew it, I was back in college learning everything I could about web design and development, you know, “just in case”. Well, just as I knew it would, the day came when my web development skills were needed. All construction work dried up earlier this year. Long, long layoffs were ahead. Time to put those coding skills to use. I started freelancing, and was having the time of life. It was great, all except for one thing, it wasn’t exactly making me rich. In fact, the payments were very, very far apart. So I needed unemployment to help bridge the gap.
Fast forward to the second week of October. Unemployment decided that I needed a new claim, so I had to re-apply. That’s fine, except for the fact that I am expected to go 3-4 weeks without any income while they decide if I am still worthy. For the past two weeks I have been getting emails informing that I have important issues to take care of on their website. Trouble is when I go to get those items it will not allow me to open them. So I do what any person would do, I call them. Not just once, but everyday for a week. I tell them I want to make sure everything is okay and also make sure that there is not something I am missing. I am told repeatedly “You are fine. Just keep doing what you’re doing”. Something just doesn’t seem right. I haven’t been paid in two weeks. Finally, on call number five, I am informed that there is a hold on my claim. I need to send a copy of my social security card. I blew my top! In-frickin-credible.
I am more upset with myself than anything else. I allowed this to happen. I knew it would eventually come, and I did nothing to prepare myself. I just kept on living in the moment with no regard with what was ahead. Okay, I screwed up. But how do I fix it? I can’t. But I can do my best to limit the chances of it happening again. So, how do I do that? Simple, I change everything.
When I was in school for web development I made a personal goal. I may regret sharing this, but I made a goal to be the best web developer at the college. I made this goal for two reasons. Number one, I knew I would never be the “best”, but it would always give me something to work towards. Number two, it was easily measurable. I could compare what I was doing to what everyone else was doing and instantly know where I was lacking and what I needed to work on. I am sure I never reached that goal, but I think I was pretty close. I graduated with honors and was looked upon favorably by my peers. So, what happened? Why I am not that same driven person? I lost sight of my goals. Time for a change.
So here I am, a freelance web developer. Now what are my goals, I can’t tell you because I don’t think I have set them. So I ask myself “What do you want?”. The answer is the same now as it was when I was a student. I want to be the best. I don’t want to be the best so I can brag, or look down on my peers, or demand lots and lots of money (although the money part is cool). I want to be the best because I love the web. I love the well crafted code that takes time, creativity, and effort to produce. I love the stunning user interfaces that make some sites or applications awesome. I love the new technologies that push the borders of what we think is possible. So how do I become the best?
First I realize that I will never be the best. There will always be someone better than me, and that’s cool. I look at my peers. I see what amazing things they are doing that I am not aware of, or I just haven’t looked into, or maybe I just haven’t tried. I market myself much, much better. I share a lot more than I do now. I don’t mean sharing links. I mean sharing who I really am, what I am all about, what I am working on, what problems I ran into and how I overcame them. I am tired of trying to be something I am not. I don’t blog because maybe it’s been said before, maybe because I might feel stupid. Again, it’s time for a change.
I am changing everything. This site, my personal site, is going to be just that. All me. I have a family. I have tastes in music, movies, sports, etc. I play guitar. There are all kinds of things that define me and I don’t share any of them. Just now I am thinking how easy it is to write this post when I am just being myself. Actually, it’s probably too long, but it’s cool. I am doing it for me.
So here’s the skinny. In addition to my personal site, I am going to launch a sub-domain for all the business type stuff. Resume, portfolio, recommendations, blah, blah, blah. I am also going to start a web design/development blog with more article based blog posts. How to’s, plugins, code, etc. Hopefully with any luck, I will help some of my peers, and I know for a fact that they will help me. I might even make some new friends.
What happens beyond what I just discussed? I am not sure. Maybe small business. Maybe continue freelancing. Maybe even go work for someone. Not to forget the Ironworkers are always there if work picks up again. I am just going to be myself and see what happens.