If I learned one thing in 25 years of running design and education companies, it’s that idealism isn’t a business strategy.
If you wonder why my partners and I had to shut down organizations we and lots of you loved, refer to the previous sentence.
The Secret
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10 comments on The Secret
Categories business, Career, conferences, Design, industry, Publishing, Small Business, studio.zeldman
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10 responses to “The Secret”
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And the future generations of designers missed out on a great thing.
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No notes. Perfect post, Jeffrey.
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A VP of UX (kind man, thoughtful) at a huge enterprise company once told me that I was an idealist. I remember it felt like both a compliment and a subtle warning – that to succeed in my career I’d need more and different skills, and that, however well-intentioned my thinking, aspiring for ideal outcomes ultimately requires a level of buy-in and action from others that’s rare bordering on impossible.
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Yeah lets blame it on idealism instead of the reality of not having the skills to run the company well and making too many mistakes along the way. But that would take a lot longer to explain than a simple meaningless statement that sounds clever.
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But would you do it any differently? I think the idealism created more lasting value.
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Sadly that is true but I will stand firm on the importance of craftsmanship https://design-bytes.com/beyond-craft-the-case-for-craftsmanship/
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Historically the only way it works out for quality and craft is if patrons (typically crazy, evil, and/or stupid but ruthless and practical people) for any number of weird reasons (usually ego) subsidize them.
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That is capital “W”, wisdom right there. Flat out.
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