Don’t spend so much time trying to choose the perfect opportunity, that you miss the right opportunity.
- Michael Dell
Via startupquote
Tag Results: action
Creativity is a double-edged sword. The more ideas we have, the less likely we are to stay loyal to one. So the creative mind ends up jumping from idea to idea, and none of them happen. There is no correlation between how great an idea is and the likelihood of it happening.
Scott Belsky
Via Surfstation
I have to agree that at times rushed timelines for complex projects lead to frustrations and stress, but from my personal experience (and others that I’ve worked along side) a lot of my best work has come from aggressive timelines. There is nothing like a fast approaching deadline that forces you to start making decisions and stop second guessing your creative methods. In fact I have found that “slow design” tends to allow for too much time to contemplate, find inspiration, critique, adjust, and procrastinate.
The one situation where I believe aggressive timelines will produce frustration and poor work is when you allow or work in an environment where every project is a rush. Once the burn-out kicks in it is near impossible to produce quality work quickly.
Act fast. Create. Launch.
What are your thoughts? Do you believe “slow design” generally produces better work?
Profitable and Proud: Campaign Monitor
37signals’ Signal vs. Noise is posting a new series highlighting companies that have $1M+ in revenue all without any initial VC investments. The first post in the series features the creator of email marketing software targeted towards web designers, Campaign Monitor. The founders of Campaign Monitor talk about their shift from a web design business to creating and profitably selling a product over six months. Read the full article discussing their culture, challenges, and goals for the future.
At the end of the article they give sound advice to others considering starting a business.
- Don’t make excuses, start building something right now. Ideas are worthless unless they’re executed.
- Never be afraid to charge for your product from day one. If nobody is prepared to pay for it, it’s probably not solving an important problem anyway.
- Avoid additional investors if you can. There’s nothing more satisfying than being in complete control of your destiny.
- Never lose sight of the fact that you’re starting a business to give you more freedom to do what you enjoy in life. Don’t let it consume the very thing you’re aiming to improve.
The Best Possible Strategic Plan
We Have a Strategic Plan. It’s Called Doing Things.
Baltimore Print Studios printed what’s possibly the best strategic plan out there. At a certain point it’s best to cut out all the “strategic planning” (procrastination) and start doing.
Bank Run - Interactive Action Movie
Remember the Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid? Bank Run is like combining one of those book, with the production quality of an action movie, and an interactive game. Interactive shop SilkTricky run by Chris Lund recently launched this site along with part II that’s playable as an iPhone game.
Go ahead. Kill some time on this site. It’s worth it.
Burton 2010 Olympic USA Snowboarding Uniform
Bucking the trend of traditional materials and style for snowboarding uniforms, Burton went with a classic Americana style that represents the team in a unique and unexpected way.
Next winter season I’m sure the slopes will be full of denim styles as a result.
Behance Action Journal
Over the years I have used all type of books, journals, and pads to take notes, stay organized, and plan. Behance has created by far my favorite system for capturing actions, but before now my only complaint was the flimsy cover that took a beating rather quickly. They just updated several of their products to give the journal a thick hard cover that looks comparable to a moleskin notebook. The new journal comes in the action and dot-grid formats. I just ordered both.
It seems to me that the right approach is to think as you act, to learn while you practice, to develop systems and frameworks through doing.
