willie jackson

Month: April 2012

  • Enrichment through involvement

    The more I attend events in my neighborhood, the more I grow to appreciate it. The charm of certain intersections and building becomes apparent, and it feels more like “home” every week. I guess it might as well, right?

    I notice similar feelings related to web communities that play a role in my life as well. When I built websites for a living, I discovered the Thesis community and met some really great people, many of whom have grown to become close friends.

    The same goes for the WordPress community. The WordCamp events I’ve attended have put faces to names, made the web smaller, and fostered a sense of community among those who would otherwise interact online.

    I went to Mexico with a group of friends in January, and I grew much closer to each of them as a result. Almost too close (smile). And I recall work outings that have had a similar effect — the camaraderie can’t be replaced by trips to the snack machine or Starbucks.

    Because of how far away from the city (center) I lived when I was in Atlanta, I never got as involved in some things as I otherwise would have. And despite the fact that I’m now in a city with eight million people, but I feel more connected than ever before.

    I guess what I’m getting at is how important it is to close the laptop and interact with other humans in your community. Whatever you community is.

  • The vision revealed

    When you’re working towards a worthwhile and challenging goal, it’s hard to see what the vision looks like until you make a concerted effort, sight unseen.

    Put simply, you can’t see what you’ve never seen until you do what you’ve never done.

  • On being well-liked

    I’ve gotta be honest.

    I’m not the best technologist. I’m sometimes in over my head, and I frequently resort to Google and reference material when solving problems.

    When I used to be employed as an IT Consultant, I wasn’t particularly inspired by the work I was doing. It was a pretty stressful period of time — particularly when there were weekly layoffs within the company — because I didn’t have a real specialization.

    To make matters worse, I wasn’t motivated to develop one. The challenges weren’t interesting, the politics were annoying, and the bureaucracy was suffocating. So I definitely would have been a wonderful candidate for termination.

    When I transitioned into full-time freelancing, I did web design and development to pay the bills. It eventually turned into consulting, teaching, speaking and exotic dancing on weekends the like, but WordPress work comprised the bulk of my income.

    I wasn’t a code maestro, nor was I a particularly enlightened developer. But I took care of people, I gave a damn, and I shipped.

    Mostly though, people just liked me.

    I’m under no illusions about the quality of some of my work, or the (sometimes awful) project management skills I brought to the table.

    The truth is that I avoided being laid off because I was liked by those in a position to put me on the chopping block. The truth is that I never needed to look for work as a freelancer because people liked working with me.

    As a matter of fact, I often met people who looked for opportunities and excuses to work with me. I found it humbling and gratifying, if not a bit undeserved.

    I say all that to say this: being well-liked helps. It won’t save you if your work is shoddy, or if you’re not consistent, but it helps.

    It’s not about schmoozing or being charming, it’s really about just being human.

  • Tact

    We don’t all respond to motivational inputs in the same way.

    A welcome kick in the pants to me might feel like harassment and cajoling to someone else, and while the former might be exactly what I need, the latter might strain your relationship with someone else.

    You could read a Dale Carnegie book or study effective communication or watch documentaries on human interaction…or you could just care enough to say things with empathy, in a way that edifies the recipient.

  • The authenticity of your story

    It’s tempting to pretend that things are easier or harder than they are. Everyone loves a good story, right?

    The magic of your story isn’t a contrived struggle or feigned competence, though — it’s how the authenticity resonates with others.

    And even when the story you tell is accurate, care must be taken to communicate what represents where you are at the time.

    We appreciate your witty one-liners and practiced speech, but what we’re really looking for is confirmation that you’re human.

    Confirmation that we can see ourselves in you.

    Confirmation that we, just like you, can achieve the things we set out to do.

  • Outsized ambition

    It’s a ridiculous cycle, if you think about it.

    We spend a lot of time talking ourselves out of ambitious goals, or thinking of ways to keep our expectations in check.

    Instead of focusing on the actual challenge of doing the work, we spend our time managing our own expectations because we’d rather not let ourselves down than be surprised by our success.

  • The luxury of time

    People who remain on top of their responsibilities are able to plan, prepare, forecast, and decide. Options can be considered thoroughly before courses of action are decided upon, and the consequences of decisions can be thoughtfully considered after the fact.

    People who are chronically behind react to situations, find themselves stressed out, have no time to prepare properly, and are in control of very little in their lives. Mistakes (which come frequently when scrambling to always be “a little less behind”) sting, but real lessons aren’t learned in the wake of disasters because the next one is already looming on the horizon.

    It pays to get (and stay) ahead.

  • Obligation and opportunity

    When you walk by a shirt that’s been knocked to the floor from a rack in a department store, do you:

    1. pick it up?
    2. pick it up if someone’s watching?
    3. step over it and mutter “that’s not my job” to yourself?
    4. fail to see the shirt at all?

    Painting in unfairly broad strokes, based on completely unscientific observation, I’m of the mind that the situation above indicates how generous a person is: to the homeless, to servers and hostesses, to housekeeping at hotels, and to family members.

    Some people look for opportunities to do good, others do it when they feel pressured to socially, and everyone else falls somewhere in between.

  • Unnecessary premiums

    For many (many…) years, I drove a 1991 Honda Accord.

    It’s the car I used to get picked up from elementary school in, the car I inherited when I was old enough to drive, and the car that saw me off to Atlanta when I started my career. It gave me little trouble in the 475 years that I owned it.

    During this same time, I saw many of my peers graduating to more expensive vehicles that were decidedly sexier than my charcoal sedan.

    You probably know where this is going: many of them quickly learned about a pesky little concept called the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Premium gas, expensive oil changes, and expensive maintenance.

    Bummer. Fast-forward to last month, and an unrelated story:

    When the Dollar Shave Club tore through the Twitternets with its brilliant and viral video, I signed up. I sprung for “The Executive” since it’s scientifically proven that women like men who shave with more blades tm.

    Judge me, I don’t care.

    As it turns out, the Executive razor is wonderful…but a terrible fit for how I shave and currently wear my facial hair. So I’d be better off with the cheapest one or sticking with the overpriced (but simple) blades I buy from CVS.

  • Better tomorrow…and the day after that

    I’m a big fan of outlandish and unrealistic goals, but it makes sense to be a bit pragmatic with them from time to time. One example is striving for perfection in all things.

    This isn’t the same as striving for zero errors in the production of widgets, or striving for 100% customer satisfaction; I’m talking about striving for infallibility.

    Instead of striving to be without fault (which I suppose is a noble goal, but far loftier than my mortal brain can manage), it might be worthwhile to strive to be better every day.

    It’s a deceptively simple goal, but it’s decidedly not easy to consistently implement. It also requires that we’re specific about what we’re improving.

    It stops being fun after a while (how do you continuously optimize your finances anyway? who wants to call companies to negotiate a $30 discount on a deductible every year, for example…), but we can start with something we want to improve, determine what success looks like, and map out the steps to reach the goal.

    By the way, how are those New Years Resolutions coming along? 🙂