Providing the best work

I am talking about the moments you’re working hard for a client or yourself, time is running out, you want to go to bed and you suddenly find a long awaited solution to a certain problem. Then you have two choices: to move on or to search for an even better solution.

To follow the second option feels clumsy but it is sometimes better to take the clumsy road.

In design this might be finding an even better color comb, in development a piece of code which is more secure and faster, in writing a clearer piece of text for your client. I think similar things rule all professions.

The effort to provide the best work (whatever it may be) was always great for me. Through this tiring but fulfilling experience I had the chance to see new things concerning my work, things I would never meet otherwise. Even better: when you expand your limits you change your way of thinking. By time you need to do it more often.

All in all this makes the difference between a professional and someone who just has a job. Consequently, this is what you pay. I remember me, back during the old ages, wondering why two companies required totally different money for the same service. It took me years to realize that quality made the difference and it took me even more time to define quality.

It is often not easy to define quality. For a dish served in a restaurant quality is measured by taste, the way it looks and smells, how you feel after you eat it etc. In Web design quality has to do with harmony, how easily one finds content, how easily she communicates with the website, how accessible it is etc. It takes a trained eye to consider all these options. A typical user senses quality but he can’t signify it. Most of the times if you feel all right in a website is enough to consider it good enough.

I have learned to appreciate real professionals by the time I started to act as one of them. It is not as easy as it sounds. I recognized this race, I admired it and now I want every single piece of my work to have an essence of professionalism. There always going to be a lot who are better than you but it’s OK with me. At least there’s always a target ahead.

No, I am not writing this post to show off. I am writing it to remind myself not to give up the next time I meet a problem which can’t be solved.