Author: John Locke

Recently, a successful local designer asked me whether I got up in the morning and immediately started coding, or was I the type that slept in a bit and coded all night long.

This is probably a common question, but it threw me a little, because it seemed so binary in its implications. My response was that I tried to begin each morning by writing, when it was still quiet, before the working day started. I think this response also threw my designer friend a bit.

There’s a morbid fascination with workaholism as a badge of honor in our industry. My feeling is that you need to reflect often on what you’re trying to achieve, or you end up redoubling your efforts while losing sight of your original goals.

The writing thing is something that I’ve always done anyway. But when writing is a priority, it seems to focus your thoughts on who you’re trying to reach, and what you want to say to them. It helps you see what needs addressing. It helps you to teach yourself while you’re teaching others. It helps you crystallize your thoughts in a way that many people do not.

Writing seems to be secondary to doing in web culture. But it seems like a lot of bad ideas and wasted time could be avoided by thinking for a half hour and just getting stuff down on paper. We celebrate hackathons than happen for no other reason than to crush code, but no one knows who those people are unless they are another hacker.

There’s very few thought leaders that are inarticulate. The people who give us ideas and shape our industries are those who make the time to write each day. How valuable is it to share ideas or educate to you or the people you work with? Is it a priority, or is it an afterthought?

The work is always going to be there. You can work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and still find things to do. Time is a vacuum that we insist on filling. If we don’t fill it, we feel worthless, or we fear others will deem us worthless. As a survival instinct, we work harder and harder to keep running in place. That’s brutal.

Carving out time to write isn’t something I thought of on my own. It’s something that I saw a ton of other people who seem to be getting somewhere talk about. I try things to see how they work — hacking the laws of the Universe, if you will. So far, it seems to be working out. You’re reading this right now, after all.

So, I encourage you to try writing a bit each day. Even if you never publish anything, it will make you a better critical thinker, and quite possibly open a door or two for you. Writing things down makes them more concrete — it brings them into reality. It enables your ideas to be spread.

That work will always be there, but if you don’t decide for yourself how to use your time, someone else will.

It was not all that long ago, but when I remember it, it seems like another lifetime ago.

I was a father and husband. My son was still very little. I was the breadwinner for our family. I had a lot of pride in my job and my profession. It felt like I was on the fast track to anywhere I could imagine going.

We moved to a large city with literally a week’s notice. If I had stopped to notice, I would have seen everything crumbling then, but everything was about work and keeping people happy, so they would elevate me how I believed they would.

Things went really well for a few years. My bosses bosses’ spoke to me a lot about business, and the future. I pretty much never stopped working. I didn’t take breaks and worked through lunch almost every day. Maybe this was why the higher-ups liked me. I didn’t ever stop to find out. I was addicted to feeling successful. My home life was a shambles, but at least I had work.

Right about the time I was in line for a promotion, everything seemed to change. One of the people who was in my district manager’s ear had it out for me, though I didn’t know this at the time. Not only was I passed for the promotion I had been told I was getting, for the next several years, I was quietly transferred to lower-profile locations and finally eradicated from the company.

To be honest, I would have done the same. At the time, my personal life was a mess. In hindsight, I feel most of it had to do with putting work ahead of everything else. The reason I was doing it was for my family, but I didn’t see how I should have said “Fuck It” to a whole lot of situations that I was enabling.

Fast forward seven years. Life still isn’t easy. There are still things that I have no choice but to deal with. But today, I’m a lot clearer about what I will and will not allow. I have my own lines in the sand that come from experiencing many less-than-ideal situations.

I’m very lucky and blessed to have a partner who has my back just as much as I have hers. I have a son who must find his own way and define who he is as he gets closer to adulthood. These relationships, and a handful of others, are things that I value and prioritize. This means having things like regular office hours, so that I have time to spend, and don’t damage my relationships with the people who mean the most. It means putting people first: always being honest and transparent with everyone. Remembering that family and loved ones deserve me at my best, not at my worst. It means having reasonable boundaries, and expecting the same respect that I give to others.

That’s another amazing thing that has happened to me in the last five years. Through dedication and work, I’ve been able to create a new career path for myself. No one gave me this education; I had to take it for myself. It has been a major component in reclaiming the personal power and self-respect that I relinquished from my life for so long.

Things are still growing. It hasn’t been all unicorns and rainbows. But I don’t regret my decisions for a second. Money comes and goes, but who you choose to become is what remains with you. That’s the part that endures and matters.

I feel good about my world. It took me a while to get here. But I know who I am, and I’m comfortable in my own skin. I’m not about to let that change.

Two minutes isn’t a long time. But if you’re listening to someone explain a concept you can’t decipher, it can seem like eternity.

As web developers, we have a tendency to use our industry terminology too often. Clients don’t need jargon. Jargon is a wall, built to keep the uninitiated out. That’s not what we want.

When we explain things to clients, try not to make it sound like alphabet soup. Describe things in a way that is easy for them to understand.

Continue reading “Two Minutes or Less”

Trust is a vital component of human relationships. Without it, alliances that were once strong will wither and die, going down in a ball of flames. We make important decisions based how much trust we put in the people on the other end of the relationship.

Some web developers have been taught to always say Yes — to never reveal that they are unfamiliar with anything in their world. They have come to believe that when asked if they have done something, they should agree, even when they may not have that familiarity. These developers have heard stories of the early web from people who went on to make huge names for themselves. These stories all have a similar plotline. Sometime in the past, a client approached the developer, asking them about a certain technology. The developer assured them they “knew how to do that” and they could handle the job. The developer then learned everything they needed to know over the weekend. These personal recounts always have a happy ending for everyone involved.

The web industry is not in the same place that it was in those Protozoic years. There’s more going on now than ever before, with no signs of slowing down. Misrepresenting your skills will expose you a lot quicker than it would have ten years ago. And that’s a good thing.

Continue reading “Trust, Now and Then”

What you believe, is what you become.

If you believe you have nothing or you always are in need, then that will be your future.

And everything that you do—your actions and deeds will reflect that.

The scarcity mindset reflects a belief that your circumstances cannot improve.

It stifles action against making things happen for yourself.

Scarcity is a mindset that breeds ever-increasing futility.

I choose to believe that my actions are not futile, but they point toward a future that I am creating day by day.

The people that I choose to work with—they also believe that their actions have significance.

You create your reality.

This is a difficult thought for many people to handle.

This goes against everything that many people believe.

Some believe their life is governed by destiny or fate or cosmic balance.

Or they may wait for the Deity of their choice to rubber stamp their path before embarking on it.

While I am a very philosophical and metaphysical person also, I believe that your destiny is shaped by intention.

I’m not a Calvinist, I do not believe in predestination.

Like the song says, no one’s going to tell you when to run—
so don’t miss the starting gun.

The future is always unwritten.

You are creating it day by day.

I think this responsibility is a frightening thought for the majority of people.

It means that luck is meaningless and imaginary.

There is only intention and the opportunity you create for yourself.

The opposite of the scarcity mindset is the abundance mindset.

If faith is the belief in things hoped for but unseen, then the abundance mindset is strikingly similar.

Your words have power.

Is it merely coincidence that every major religion and culture has a creation story in which the Universe came into being by the spoken word?

I believe this is not a coincidence, but rather pointing toward the hidden truth standing in front of us.

It is not just the words of our respective gods that have power, it is our own words that create our circumstances and our reality.

I have often heard it said that the measure of your character is not your circumstances, but rather your reaction to your circumstances.

It is true, at various points my life I have had both abundance and the lack of abundance, both spiritually and materially.

At this stage of my life I am choosing to believe in myself and in my ability to create a future for myself—out of thin air if need be.

Rather than wait for things to get better on their own, I choose to show my belief in abundance by acting as if that abundance is already here.

Similarly, those who have a scarcity mindset live their life—and act out every day as if that abundance is never going to arrive for them.

This creates fear, anxiety, and desperation.

This is not something that I want for myself.

I want to live up to my goals, not down to my means.

Will I realize every single goal that I set for myself?

Time will tell.

But if you do not dare to believe in your dreams, it is a guarantee you will never achieve them.

If you’re like me, you’re continually making goals, and trying to figure out how to where you’ve never been before from where you’re at. I feel you. I’m also trying to hack reality. I’ve had some successes, and some failures as well. I understand the struggles beneath the surface appearance of civilized society.

The last couple of years, I’ve made my full-time living from web design and development. I came to the game a little later than most, but this is not a disadvantage in my eyes. It’s made me more intentional about my choices.

Being skillful at your craft is essential to earning a living, but if people are familiar with you and like who you are, that makes it even easier. Being unknown is a detriment. Anonymity forces you to prove yourself to every fresh set of eyes and ears you encounter. Most people want less gatekeepers between themselves and their goals, not more. Wherever possible, make sure the doors in front of you are already open. Meet others within your industry face to face whenever possible. To have doors unlocked ahead of you, you must gain trust of the community, one person at a time.

Writing and sharing what you have learned helps greatly. Knowledge is something that wants to be shared, and y helping others, you help yourself to grow as well. A taller challenge is to be in the places where people meet, and keep expanding your presence. Traveling to local events is a good place to start. True friendships are formed by doing things with other people. Intimate trust is something that cannot be gained through social media. Your lasting impressions will be made in the presence of others. This is a basic human feature that will probably never change. I believe this is why many web companies still have issues supporting remote teams, even though we possess all the tools to do it. People simply feel better about people that they hang out with versus people they don’t see face to face.

It seems important to go to the larger events and conferences as soon as possible. There are many people you will likely never get to meet otherwise. Rapport seems easier to develop with those who you physically meet at events such as these. I also believe it alters people’s perception of you if you have the time and resources to travel to different conferences often. It means you are doing something right, and that you are successful enough to make it happen. Perhaps this legitimacy is something that I strive for because I have always sought acceptance from my peers.

The large barrier for most people is the time and the financial constraint of traveling. But there is a great deal of legitimacy that comes from speaking, having a podcast, or writing a book. In order to achieve any of these, you must have something to say that others perceive as having value. The speakers on the event stages have made great sacrifices of time and effort to prepare, research, rehearse and deliver their knowledge to others. If you wish to be where they are, you must make those same sacrifices.

There is a great deal of envy, desire, and admiration of industry celebrities. I think people believe life is somehow easier if you are well-known, but I think successful people are all very good at managing their time. They manage their 24 hours differently than the majority of folks. To take all the steps and micro-steps necessary to reach your goals is to live with intention. People seek an easy road, but there is no easy road. Everything gained must be earned, paid for with decisive action and thousands of hours.

I must provide more value to people in order to earn more, so I may have the time and resources to accomplish my list of goals. I must teach others what I have learned, so I may provide more value, and therefore, be more valuable to others. Without this step, the other steps cannot be completed. I guess that’s it – there is no secret. You simply have to work harder than everyone else, and then put yourself in the position to have those opportunities in front of you.

I wish I would have been ready for this phase my life a long time ago, but you cannot change the past. You can only change today; that is all you have. Make use of it.

When we hear stories others getting the fame, recognition, and traffic that we desire, our first tendency is to wonder why that isn’t us. We look for shortcuts to becoming a black swan. We long for the quick win—we wish we could have overnight success, but we forget that years of work go into being suddenly discovered. The performer on YouTube that gets 500 million views on their first video, the business that shoots to the top of an industry, the blog that is an instant hit — these results are not common. We feel bad because we only have 5, 50, or 500 followers. We fail to recognize how amazing it is to even have one.

Continue reading “Growing Your Business Gradually”

Don’t compare yourself to others. Your path is unique, as is theirs.

There will always be people ahead of you, but most of the time, they have put in years of work that leading up to today. Overnight successes take a long time to manifest.

Focus on the things that you do best. There are many paths to success, and they’re not all identical. Every experience you have had has given you unique skills and perspective.

Play to your strengths. It’s okay to work on your weaknesses, but don’t make them the focus of your business.

Continue reading “Don’t Compare Yourself To Others”

Many well-known financial advisers talk about the hierarchy of priorities in this order:

1. People
2. Money
3. Stuff

There are multiple reasons why this order is important.

Continue reading “Priorities”

If you’re reading this, you’re most likely a business owner or entrepreneur. You are following your dream, trying to do something you love and excel at. You care about your craft. You know most of your customers by name. You are an active and vital part of your community.

Running a business is hard work. Definitely one of the hardest things you’ve ever done. You’ve gone all in on making this succeed, because that’s how much you believe in yourself. You know you’re providing your customers something that makes their daily lives a bit better. Your product is something people want and they are willing to pay for on a regular basis.

Your business is growing, but slower than you would like. Dealing with the minutiae of business stuff leaves you tired sometimes, but you’re always ready the next day, because this is the work you were called to do. You’re embracing the struggle, even when it’s a bittersweet ride.

Continue reading “Embracing the Struggle”