It’s been a busy few weeks around here so there hasn’t been a post. But that’s okay, nobody was around to read posts anyway, I’m sure! We’ve been doing lots of skiing at our favorite out-of-the-way podunk downhill place in Wyoming. Which reminds me of this old Wyoming map:
Now I’m started on The New Year’s Project. Painting the dining room to create a swanky new room-scape. We’re going with dark purple. If I’ve got the time I’ll paint two huge acrylic black and silver owl paintings to go on the wall. And we’ll put the black map sticker back up too.
Black, silver, and dark purple. Now there’s a sweet color palette for a dining room. I say this now, before it’s done. You know, Helen Keller said, “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”
Confidence at the beginning of a project is often due to sheer ignorance of the size of a project and the effort required to finish it. This goes for map making as well. In the middle of the project is where you start to lose faith but hopefully perservere to the last phase of the project, which envelopes you in exhaustion and hatred for all things related to what you’re doing. The only thing that allows a person to finish is determinitation not to be a loser. Basically.
Mark Twain: “To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.”
Someone asked me the other day how I have been in business for so long (since 2001) when a lot of other solo GIS consultants have called it quits. They thought for sure that I must be a whiz at networking. On the contrary, I wish I were. I’m terrible at networking. But somehow I manage to hold on to clients who stay for many years. It’s probably that dogged need I have to finish something as well as I can.
Once I spent an entire weekend, almost around the clock retrofitting a client’s backpack GPS unit so it work with an HP iPAQ (remember those?). It required a special ferry trip to Seattle to go to an electronics part store and many calls to an electrical engineer who I got on board to help out with the wiring. I was given the task literally on a Thursday and had to have it delivered to the client by Monday morning so his field crew could go out and survey manholes before he left for a 6 week Alaskan fishing trip.
Another time a client needed a cms “like yesterday” for their website. I knew nothing about it but I broke out my superperson costume and saved the day (okay, it took a couple of days to implement, but still.)
One client has stayed with me since 2003. My hope 2014 brings more work from old clients and perhaps some new.
What are your 2014 projects? What are your “I need it yesterday” client moments? Let’s hope I don’t have to call in a superman consultant to finish this New Year’s dining room ren-o. 
Recent Comments