So there are tons of different ways to measure success, and everyone has their own vision of what it takes to be successful. I am only talking about success in your career, not life success, because that’s a whole other write-up. Anywhere from owning a bunch of businesses, to being straight up rich as hell, it really all depends on the person, their industry, morals, goals, and yadda yadda.

I’ve thought alot about what it would take for me to be successful , in my eyes, and how I want to get there. Though I don’t really feel like explaining all the ways I want to get there, I will tell how I will gauge when I am successful as an established web designer.

I obviously plan on working for some type of creative company for awhile, simply because I am no where near having the type of client base that would allow me to go out on my own. So while I am working for these places, I want to prove that when I am given a task/project, I will deliver. Not only that, I won’t half ass it, and I will put everything I have into delivering a quality product.

On top of putting my all into delivering a quality product, I want people to know that they can trust me in delivering that quality product: credibility. Credibility is how I will measure my success. I want people to know that my work with be worth investing in. Once I start establishing myself with a client base, and I know I have gained that credibility, I know that success is not too far off.

As easy as it is to say that the money is good in my industry, that is not the driving force to success. I’ve always said, and will continue to say, that the most satisfaction that I get when finishing up a project is the client saying “I love our new product.” And an obvious added bonus being the client saying that they’ve been getting good feedback from users about the product. There is no greater feeling then knowing that you were able to help out a business (or person) market themselves, and them actually liking what I’ve made for them. Then, comes the money.

To piece it all together, once I know that I have that big client base that I have satisfied and they know they can rely on me, that my friend, is when I know I am successful. I’ll know that the effort put into my work has payed off, not only for my inner-soul, but that has greatly helped out another person/business.

If you chose to respond, how do you measure success in your industry?

peace

And when I say real, I mean I truely feel like I’m in the real world now. I’m still adjusting to this new schedule that I’m on, and it’s quite different from my last one. This time around, I wake up at 6:30 (as opposed to 7:30), and I iron out some business casual clothes, get dressed, and leave at about 7:45 to deal with the buttload of traffic on 75 to get to work around 8:30. It hasn’t been too bad driving to work, but driving home is a bitch. It took me almost an hour to get home today.

So I started work on Monday and I’m almost done with my first week of work. I haven’t been able to get into any web design yet but  I’ve been designing like banner ads and stuff, which is kinda cool cause I’ve never done it before. I think it’s too early to tell how I feel about the job though, I need a few more weeks under my belt before I can give a solid answer. I do miss working at MSU though. There were many comforts to that job that you can’t really put a price on, and the fact that I was strictly designing for the web was great. So in a past blog I mentioned a long term goal that I had with this job, and that got squashed on my first day. Why? Because they were ahead of me, which isn’t surpising. So after a few weeks, maybe I can come up with another goal, who knows.

I always thought that I would hate dressing up for work, and although it’s only week one, I haven’t mind(ed?) it at all. I don’t have to wear a tie so that makes it all that much better. Plus there’s casual Friday’s, so I only have to dress up for 4 days. But I definitely like wearing the business casual attire, it makes me feel older, like some kind of adult.
The people I work with are hella cool though. Everything is really laid back and a low-stress environment, which is good. I like laid back. But on my first day they took me out to lunch and we went walking around downtown, so that was very cool of them. I think I want to bring my digital camera out one day when I’m walking around downtown though because it’s kinda cool down there. I haven’t really been down there a ton, but I saw all kinds of cool shots that I wanted to get. So keep an eye out for my ‘Faces of tha D’ photography series. I don’t know if I’ll name it exactly that, I’m just talking out of my ass, but I do like the name!

So all in all, life is good and different, and I’m still adjusting. But still, no complaints, and that’s always a good thing.

peace

Oh has life been busy as of lately. You have no idea how much I’ve enjoyed laying around all day. Well not all day, cause I had to work on my site for the Reboot tomorrow. I’m expecting even more traffic this week than the last time the reboot happened in November, so we’re talking about a couple thousand page views throughout the week, at least. That’s alot!

So anyways I’ve been saying the past few blogs about some big things going on. I couldn’t talk about them then because sometimes I get unwanted readers, and I didn’t want people to get the wrong idea about what was going on, so it was all for good reason that I didn’t talk about it before, but now all is good. So about a month and a half ago, I applied for a job for the Detroit Free Press. They responded a few weeks later and wanted me to come in for an interview, so I’m thinking, nice! So I went in for the interview, and I honestly think it was the best interview I’ve ever had. Things couldn’t have went better, and I was told that I was a good interview, by the lady that interviewed me……………that’s a good sign.

Two days later, they call me in for a second interview…………..another good sign. So again, I had to drive to the Heights for the night, then go to the D in the morning. The second interview went very well also, although it was a big shorter than I had expected, but no biggie. So then the next week I was made an offer!! A good one. One that I would have found very hard to decline. I told them I needed a couple days to think things out, and that I would get back to them soon. So I thought some things out, asked them a bunch of questions, and all sounded good. So I accepted!! So I will be a web designer for the Detroit Free Press!! I’ve already started thinking about a long term goal that I want to accomplish while working there, but that definitely can’t be talked about.

So that is very big news for me, and I am very excited to start fresh somewhere. So in the past few weeks I have been doing alot of driving back and forth between here and the Heights, and Detroit. I am literally exhausted, and it’s not over. Yesterday I spent the day in Royal Oak looking for a new apartment, driving around, and I was very successful. The place I found is in a great location; about a mile from downtown, close to a Meijer, a mile from the highway, and about two miles from Sumerset Mall!! Only thing I need to find now is where the hell a Best Buy is, and I’m good to go! So anyways, I will be relocating in about 3 weeks, move-in is set for the weekend of the 20th, yes of May. The turnaround is extra fast, so the busy life doesn’t slow down just yet, in fact it probably won’t slow down for another month. These next few weeks will be spent packing, patching up some things here in E.L., and moving all of my shit to the RO. I also need to find a subleaser, so if there is anyone that knows someone that is looking for a subleaser, PLEASE let me know because I have 3 weeks to find one.

I am very excited that I am finally leaving East Lansing. I feel like I have seen and done everything that I’ve wanted to do, and then some. I will be nice starting somewhere fresh, and learning a new city. I got an idea today of something that I want to do when I move to the RO, but I’m going to keep that on the wraps, and I think it could be very successful, but there is research that I need to do first. If it’s a success, you might even use it one day, that’s the only clue you get!

I went to this end of the year reception for the Professional Writing major. They were welcoming back alums, sending off grads, and so forth. So alot of people brought their parents and there were profs there and everything, it was nice. It wasn’t exactly how I expected it to be though. I thought I was going to just go there, hang out with a few people I know, and that’s it. No. I ended up chatting like mad with a bunch of different parents. Like I talked to more parents than I did anyone else, and I liked it. Is that my budding maturaty?! Who knows, but I definitely enjoyed talking to the parents, and I couldn’t have felt more like an adult, it was interesting. I can’t say that I’ve ever had those kind of detailed conversations with parents before, I liked.

But there you have it, lots going on, and big transitions happening in the next few weeks. Things are hectic, and it never stops!

peace

I think that when I go to bed tonight, I am going to have dreams about all of the damn code that i’ve been lookin at for the past week. I’ve been flat out working my ass off to get my new site done. When I wasn’t at the 9-5, I was here working on my site. But it paid off, almost. I love the new look of it. I have one more small fix and then it will be complete! So once I finished the overall design work/coding, I had to write my first blog for it. And yes, that is the blog site that i’ve been talking about doing for some time now………….and the time….is now, apparently. A guy by the name of Tyler is now my editor for the writing that I will be doing on the site. So I owe him big for that. I am quite interested in seeing what kind of feedback I get from my writing, and I was kinda nervous when I was writing it. My audience will be quite bigger for that site than for this one. So if you get bored, I would encourage you to head over to my new site and read my first blog, and the ones that will follow.

This week has been pretty damn big though. On top of finishing my website, the new msu site FINALLY launched. So you better believe that it was immediately put in my portfolio. So it was good to see the site launch for sure. We even got some recognition from the Web Standards Project which is big……..at least for me it is. On top of the MSU site, the new Provost, Board of Trustees, and President’s site went up as well. I haven’t added those to my portfolio yet, but I will soon. So yeah that’s four new sites that I can add to the resume, and theres more on the way!!

No word yet from my LA connection, we had a long conversation last week about next steps about getting all of this going, so he is out there doing some talkin, meanwhile I can only chill back and wait for the word. I did send him a bunch of business cards though. Anyways, I might have another client job coming up soon, I had a guy email me because he was looking for a designer for a redesign of his site. I won’t really talk about the project yet cause nothing is set in stone, but stay tuned for that. It’s going to be a fun project I think. Of course there is Noah’s site that is still in the works also, and we’re thinking a late March launch for that. Lots goin on!

I got my books in the mail! They are quite useful, and will come in handy in the near future for some of the projects that I will be working on. Im already picking out the next batch of books that I am going to by……….I know, it still sounds weird with me talkin about books. Just picture me actually reading one!

So on another note, I need a vacation!! And that will be happening soon enough. Me and Kell are gonna be headin out to the east coast to crash Travis’ apartment and kick it out there for a few days. I can’t wait! I need a break sooo bad from here, and by that time, the weather will be nice and Im quite sure that the vacation will come right on time. But im excited, cause i’ve never been to NY and i’ve wanted to go since I was in middle school. We have options out there too, with Travis, Jenn, and JJ living out there. I also know a couple guys from high school that live there too, so in no way am I worried about what we will do there. We will most likely be paying for our flights within the next week or so, and then it’ll be official!

My next blog is going to be interesting. The jist of it is like this, yesterday I was looking for a folder in my closet, and I stumbled across a few pictures. One of them turned into my new facebook pic. Anyways these other pictures I found were from the early days of life here at MSU. It was some of the really fun times that i’ve had here at State with the homies. Some of these images I couldn’t stop laughing at. So I will be posting up a few of the great memories. A few of the homies in some of these images are in rare form, and it might even be you! But I promise that you will get a kick out of some of the images, cause I for sure did……..kinda took me down memory lane. Even D (yes David Dewrance) made the cut, and I will have something to say about that as well. I even have a pic from high school of the old school E-Town crew. Basically my next blog is going to be sort of a mini project because I have to scan all these pics. But if you have ANY pictures that you think might be funny to put up, please email me because I will be taking this next week to get all of these images ready. You will not want to miss this! So stay tuned…..

And lastly, I put up some new tracks of the week, but two of them are ones that Noah (Vanysh) produced called Liter Side, and Purple Room, so give them a listen.

And I’m out

peace