Title of the story of your career
Planted Mar 2021 Tended 5 years ago
Contents
In an interview recently I was asked “if you had to give your career a title, what would it be”.
Amazing question… one that took me by surprise and forced me to really think. To think about not only what it has been, but what I’d like for it to be. What I strived for it to be… knowing that I have come up short.
After a minute or so, I said “Empathetic Iteration with a Smile”.
Empathetic
As much as I love building software, if we can’t do it with kindness, camaraderie, and love for one another, it isn’t worth it.
So I added Empathetic as the first word as a way to express the high emotional intelligence I aspire to having and I expect from those around me.
Iteration
There is nothing better than the “Build => Measure => Learn” cycle. The clarity of an aligned observable goal. The thrill of seeing the fruits of our labor have a real impact.
I don’t care if it is a Product or a Process… iterating means constantly running through the feedback loop. It is the activity behind the phrase Kaizen aka Continuous Improvement.
I am driven to continuously, relentlessly, unfadingly improve.
With a Smile
Life is too short to live it angry. Life is too short to spend it with jerks.
In the precious time we have, I want to live it with a smile.
P.S. In the team meetings when I was at Lessonly, we’d start with a question of the week and break into small groups to answer it. Fantastic way to start a week and engage with your teammates. Shout out to Brea Day for leading these sessions!
One week we had the question “what would be the name of your auto-biography” the consensus of mine was “Fuck the status quo” 😂 I attribute this to my desire to always be looking for ways to continuously improve 🤞🏾.