This is a view the first Congregational Church in the center of Manchester Village, Manchester, Vermont.

Early morning fall. The plow hasn’t been taken off the truck in 5 years. When Krakatoa erupted in 1883 there was no summer in Vermont. It snowed in July. People left the state in droves.

…I enjoyed our talk.

You know, I wanted to ask you about something you said, just to make sure I understood.

What I heard you say this morning was that you spend fifteen hundred dollars a few times a year to mail out a series of promotional postcards. So, in the past ten years you’ve spent forty five thousand dollars… on postcard mailings.

Direct mail is certainly a powerful and effective tactic, but why would you continue putting your money into that when it’s  possible  to deliver  more information  to more people at a fraction of the cost of mailing a card?  Investing  money in a marketing campaign doesn’t seem to be the issue, so what is it that’s preventing you from fully embracing the web?

Excellence is a subjective term. However we define excellence for ourselves it can be instructive when allowed to see how it’s defined by others. This is especially true when it’s defined by someone or something who appears successful and must be doing something right.

Here is a presentation that defines the core values of Netflix. As I scrolled through the slides, I found myself nodding in agreement and thinking that such solid, common sense core values would be important ones to adopt for any size organization from sole proprietors to enterprise.

Applying these values means living these values and that takes consistent and mindful effort. I confess, it’s easy to slip and make mistakes. I have some work to do, how about you?

In trying to reach a goal we will almost always need the help of others who have the critical knowledge and experience needed to realize a vision. And sometimes we’re the one recruited to join a team for the value of our unique abilities.

Ideally members of a team are focused, flexible, objective, motivated, willing to learn, and know how to make an effort. But no team is perfect and in any group, at any given time during the life of a project’s evolution, there are those who pull their weight and more, and those who don’t, coasting on the work of others. Sometimes dips in performance are understandable, at other times not so much.

While we can’t be held responsible for the level of participation by another team member, what happens when we perform at a level below reasonable expectation or established ability? What happens when we are distracted by events in other areas of our life; or when we have differences with another member of the team; or we lose interest and motivation; or we’re exhausted? Whatever our challenge there are a few areas in which we should always make an extra effort.

• To be responsible and responsive to others.
• To be honest with ourselves.
• To honor commitments and do what we say we’ll do.
• To acknowledge others and give proper credit.
• To express gratitude.

Eventually a project will end and we’ll move on, taking with us the knowledge of how well we performed. In hindsight, could we have made an extra effort? How we honestly assess our performance will influence our self-respect, our self-confidence, and ultimately our future. Whatever the outcome, as long as we did the best we could with what we had to work with, there will be no need to feel regret.

Recommended Reading: ‘The Art of Possibility’, Rosamund Stone Zander, Ben Zander

Photo Credit: Photographer Unknown, Creative Commons

“You don’t have to figure everything out before you get started.”  Chris Guillebeau

Beginning any project -big or small, is often the hardest step we take in manifesting a project as a reality. This is true of any project, in any field. If you have a project in mind, it must be realized that nobody has ever done what you want to do in the precise way that you want to do it. Even you. And that means there is no road map. You have to build that map yourself. You are a pioneer on a mission to discover unique solutions to a unique problem.

It sounds obvious but there is no other way to begin a project than to just start. Sometimes we have nothing more to build on than an intuitive sense, a feeling. So, we just have to step into it, gather materials, rough out ideas, and meet inevitable dead ends with a degree of courage in discovering the form that our idea is suggesting. There is no other way.

At this time in my life, I’m very engaged with developing websites. Anyone who has ever had anything to do with web development knows how complex this work can be whether looking at it from the perspective of a purpose defined, solving never-ending technical challenges, or managing content generation. It can be quite the juggling act getting all the parts balanced and working just right.

I only know how challenging it can be from having spent a number of years with my sleeves rolled up. Rarely when I’m asked to start any project do my potential clients understand the scope of the challenge and that for me to help them realize whatever idea it is that they might have, we must collaborate. We must be co-creators in this endeavor of building a website, learning together in an evolutionary process that is at the heart of the creative process.

Further Reading: 8 Tips for Working With Web Designers,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=f44qgQA1B-g

I know, I know,  blog in a niche. That’s feeling a little too boring and restrictive tonight.

Thanks for the upload to the Daniel Seides channel on YouTube. Thanks Daniel!