What is our goal?
I just watched “It might get loud”, its a documentary on the views of the electric guitar and its place in music, the documentary is all about the perspectives of Jack White, Jimmy Page and The Edge. Some of my favorite guitarists from my favorite bands (The White Stripes, U2 and Led Zeppelin). There is part during this documentary where Jack White explains his goal with music and it was to capture the same attitude as Son House, a blues musician, the record he played during the documentary was this artist singing and clapping, no instruments, no other band members, just a man alone against the world. Jack White goes on to explain that his goal is have that same attitude, it was capturing the same sound, or the same feeling, but simply the attitude.
That got me thinking about our goals here and mine. I’ve always been an admirer or music, I often write on my Facebook status what I’m listening to and the music I play often sets the tone for my mood and allows me to work on certain projects. I find I work best to fast paced rock music. I have ADHD and I process things very quickly, I often compare my thought process to a punch bowl with ice cubes and that I have to sift through the juice to get the ice out. I’m constantly coming up with ideas and always trying to find the best way to accomplish my goal. I often times lose sight of the goal of a project because I’m surrounded with requests from the client, needs of the market, best practices and then tying in all the search engine, marketing and social media elements. It can often times become a daunting task, especially when you’re trying to get it perfect (I’m a perfectionist) and you’re on a short time frame and budget.
In building web sites I’ve found that it is an art and a science, there’s the creative aspect of materializing an envisioned idea and the scientific part of actually making that idea work in a real world scenario that accomplishes all the goals all the interested parties have set out. I’m easily frustrated and quite honestly have a hard time getting through things sometimes because I’m so obsessed with making things absolutely perfect that I’m never satisfied with what I do.
Going back to my opening paragraph, that attitude Jack White spoke of, its really amazing when you think about it, because its so simple. The goal is an attitude, and I’ve realized, while I have so many things I feel as thought I want or need to accomplish, the goal we’re trying to accomplish here at QC Total Tech is actually an attitude. That attitude is that we’re the best, we may not be the the cheapest (or the most expensive) but we do it, and we do it right. My Dad always used to preach the same line to me when I was a kid “If its a job worth doing, its a job worth doing right” and that is so true, I tell that to my own kids and its an attitude or mindset that we share here at QC Total Tech. Our goal has never been price or some cheesy mission statement, in fact, we don’t even have a mission statement, why…I personally don’t think it matters. When people call on us, they have many questions, but there is always one question every prospective client asks without fail “What other sites have you guys built?”, they want to know what we do, they want to see we can build. I want an attitude to speak from our site and our clients’ web sites.
If someone were to ask our clients they’re thought on us, I’d hope it be something like this “Those guys at QC Total Tech, they are good, they’re not the cheapest, they have high requirements, but you know they really do their research and it took some time, but I don’t think anybody else could have done what they did for us, I’d recommend them to anyone.” There’s an attitude conveyed in my hopeful statement there, and that’s what we’re all doing, we’re selling an attitude. Our attitude is in the car we drive, the house we live, the food we eat, and certainly in the clothes we wear. I think it radiates from people, you may not always remember what people said to you but you always remember how they made you feel, and its that way for a lot of things, riding a roller coaster, driving a car or meeting someone for a business meeting. You eventually won’t remember all the crazy little details, but you always remember the feeling and that creates an attitude from you.
To me, web sites are very close to the heart, I have a real passion for creating them, when I was in school my biggest focus was art, because I love to create. I love making web sites, I love working for ourselves and getting to work with my fiancée every day. It’s a great job, its a difficult job too. Being an artist and conceptual designer I have to work when I feel inspired, and I’ve found some of my best ideas come when I’m not working at all, when I’ve stepped away for awhile. That’s why time off is so important, it allows you time to decompress, relax and let your mind rejuvenate. You may never be at 100% if you’re going full bore day in, day out with no breaks. Its not good for the mind or your drive to run at maximum capacity 24×7.
I had to write this blog post right now on a Sunday (when I’m not suppose to be working) because I felt inspired, I wanted to write these things down and put it out there.
What is your goal? What do you want to do? Do you have the attitude it takes to make it in whatever it is that you do? If you’re not making your goals, you better start looking at your attitude.