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ead the beginning of this story by visiting part 1: "Have an App Idea? Start a business: How I
did it under a month." In my last post I explained, to a limited
extent, why taking action today with whatever you are pursuing is a critical
first step to success. Furthermore, do not be afraid to invest in something you
believe in.
I had a startling realization about a year ago. Although many
of the superstars in our world--Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps, and Tom Brady
to name a few--are naturally gifted, many of the success stories that you hear
of, or perhaps don't, have resulted from applied diligence over time. Because
of examples like the aforementioned superstars, many of us feel inadequate and
unable to pursue greatness as a result. Rather, we continue to work a job that
we are not happy with, date a person we are not satisfied with, and live in a
town that we cannot escape. Hopefully I can help dispel some of these
unfortunate beliefs.
In order to make my point, two of my new favorite words are sedulous
and assiduous. Yes, I am a geek at heart. All of these words--diligence,
sedulous, and assiduous--generally speaking, mean the same thing. They describe
an effort that is taken with care, persistence, thoughtfulness, and endurance.
Anyone can run a mile. But how many can run ten miles a day for a year, or two,
or three? You get the point.
So, mastery takes time. But this lesson did not come easy for
me. For example, I am a lover of the martial arts. Specifically, I am in the
process of learning Jiu Jitsu. To date, I have four years of experience under
my belt (no pun intended). Also, I wrestled for four years in middle school and
high school. Yet, I nearly abandoned both sports early on in my learning
process.
For those of you who are not familiar with Jiu Jitsu, it is
very similar to wrestling. That is, wrestling and Jiu Jitsu are grappling arts,
or, in other words, they are ground fighting styles. In wrestling, the aim is
to pin your opponents back to the ground, while in Jiu Jitsu the aim is to get
your opponent to "tap" or give up as a result of a joint lock or
choke hold. For both sports, needless to say, I am not a beginner. Or am
I?
The reality is that the "beginner mindset" is
critical to success in life. Regardless of my successes, I am always
questioning, analyzing, and contemplating ways in which I can improve. Whether
it's a particular joint lock in Jiu Jitsu or my cadence and tone of speech
while giving a presentation at work, I am constantly watching, adjusting, and
improving upon my abilities. Time and time again, I here Jiu Jitsu black belts
explain that once you reach the rank of black belt, which takes an average of
ten years to attain, the journey of learning has just begun. And, having
trained for several years now, I completely agree. For those of you who are
reading this and cannot relate to the martial arts angle, think of anything in
life that you have mastered. Whether it is guitar, singing, painting, or
swimming, all of the beginning stages, and, perhaps, much of the middle stages,
of learning were painful. Only after the ground work was complete, could the
nuanced learning begin.
But, for the sake of completing my point, I will return to
the martial arts example. When I was a white belt, I almost quit out of
frustration of "not being good enough" or not "getting it."
I remember after a particularly difficult training session in which we live
sparred, and I was beaten again and again by higher belts. I questioned whether
or not I belonged in the gym and whether or not I would ever be good. For those
of you who do not know the belt ranking system, in Jiu Jitsu, the ranks are
ordered as such: white, blue, purple, brown, black. While I was in the locker
room changing out of my gi, or uniform, a purple belt approached me. His
message was simple, almost cliché. He said there would be a time that I too
would reach the rank of purple belt or higher if I worked hard. But, I was not
ready to hear this. I did not believe in myself. I thought there was something
that I was intrinsically missing, that "it" factor.
And I was not alone in my thinking. Despite the fact that we
have all heard the classic 10,000 hour maxim that describes the amount of time
it takes to master a given subject, many of us continue to be impatient, me
included. In fact, it is quite easy to slip into the habituated mood of wanting
more and to finish the race quicker than the person next to you. Yet, this
mindset is short sited. The quote, "Never compare your beginning to
someone else's middle," applies here. The reality is that we are all at
different places in our lives, with different abilities, hopes, aspirations, so
forth and so on. The end result: once again, be patient with the process and be
patient with yourself. Ultimately, for almost every success story, there was a
long process of hardships and failed attempts that you cannot see. But, more
importantly, the failures, the hardships, and the mishaps themselves are
important contributing factors to why success was possible.
So what the heck does this have to do with my app
development? Well, my first attempt at hiring a developer failed! Despite this
failure, I am happy that it occurred. In fact, if I had not failed, many of my
subsequent successes would not have been possible.
And this was no small mistake. It was a nine hundred dollar
lesson. I fired the developer because he did not possess the full "tool
chest" that was necessary to complete the job. For the sake of clarity,
when discussing app development, there are two parts of the app: (1) the front
end, also known as the UI (user interface) and UX (user experience); (2) the
back end of the app or web api (application programming interface). In simple
terms, the front end is the glitz and glamor. It is the pretty effects, cool
designs, and fun buttons that make apps so enjoyable to use. On the other hand,
the back end is where the data that the app collects is stored and where the
basic skeleton or logic of the app exists.
So, again, the reason I fired my first developer was because
he was unable to complete the front end design of the app. I needed a developer
or several developers who had the collective capacity to design both front end
and back end aspects of the app. I now understand that a great front end app
design is necessary not only for user adoption when the app is launched, but
also, with a clear front end, your developer will have a far easier time
creating the back end logic connecting all the pieces of the front end puzzle
together. Consequently, you should have this design in place before delving too
deep into the back end development. Furthermore, a clear front end
design, that you have agreed is beautiful and logical, allows your developer to
continue his work without worrying that he is developing something that you did
not intend for him to develop.
Perhaps this realization that I have outlined above is
elementary to many a computer scientist--the black belts of the computer world.
Yet, I am not one of them. I am a beginner. The costly lesson was a critical
step in my journey of understanding how the world of app creation functions.
But more importantly it set me on the path of further learning, a journey that
will be fully outlined in my next post. The way I look at it now: I paid nine
hundred dollars for an education, but more importantly, the kick in the ass to
get it right the next time through.
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