Passion – It’s What Drives Your Success
Ever catch yourself day dreaming about what your next Blog post or the latest CSS / Design concept you just came up with? Find yourself late at work, plastered to your chair, eyes glaring at the monitor because you are excited about the project you just started? Always having the feeling that there is just not enough time in a day to learn everything you want to learn? Some may call this a sick obsession, but I call this passion.
Now I have not been in the industry for too long, three years strong, two years professionally. From the day I graduated to this very moment, I believe the reason why I picked-up my skills and knowledge at the rate that I did was purely driven by passion.
I was never a “Computer Guy” at my high school, nor was I an artist with any sense of aesthetics. I stumbled across my degree (BS in Computer Information System) by pure accident, and not knowing what to do with my career, I somehow fell in love and made my way into web design. If it wasn’t for passion, I probably wouldn’t be doing much good right now.
Finding Passion
Being on a team of designers and developers over the past two years has made me realize three main things:
- There are two kinds of people
There are those who truly love what they do and their career, and those who just want to get it done and call it a day. This is where the road divides with your success in your career.
- Work ethics is everything
If you have been on a team, whether its sports, school activity, work, etc. you will always have the hard-working and the lazy. Having great work ethics sometimes means more to an employer than the skills you may have. Think about it from the Project Manager’s point of view: who would you like to have on the team? Who would you get rid of? Creating the best team possible is what drives most companies to their success, and it’s passion that leads you to have good work ethics without even trying.
- Love what you do. Inspire those around you.
Ever been with someone that always has a negative attitude? Affects your attitude right? On the other hand, being around a team or individual who is just as passionate as you are actually boosts your productivity and also inspires everyone around you. If your team is not as enthusiastic as you are, it’s up to you to inspire your team members and bring the team up to its full potential. In the big picture, your success depends on the team’s success.
Conclusion
If you ever find yourself not happy with what you’re doing, always start from the core of your soul. What drove you to being a designer? It may well be that it is your environment that is not best suited for you or the type of industry that you are in. I have seen a lot of people get in the comfort zone at their companies and lose the drive that they once had. Allow your passion to lead your success, it will be much more satisfying and enjoyable. I guarantee it.
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Author Bio
My name is Soh Tanaka and I am a Los Angeles based designer/front-end developer specializing in CSS driven web design with an emphasis on usability and search engine optimization. I also run a CSS Gallery which is updated daily with the best CSS websites from around the world. Come check it out!
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I recently heard that the majority rarely shapes culture, passion does. I appreciate this post – great thoughts!!
Very well said, sometimes I too get in slumps where I don’t feel the same as I used to. Thanks for this – it has sparked some inspiration in me!
I’m glad my thoughts were helpful, it was just something that was on my mind the past few days. Thanks for reading~
Some good writing there, agree 100% passion is what pushes us all no matter what we do.
I get hit with designers block all the time, but recently its been very difficult to overcome, so much so I’ve more or less stopped designing :/
Something needs to click in to place or im going to go down hill fast!
Great article, cant agree more!
Designers block is rough, if your creativity is having trouble, you can always go back to sharpening up your photoshop or css techniques, this way you wont be wasting time as you go on, your other skills will come back up and when your designers block has passed, you come back even stronger.
Great article, i just read your topic in css globe and find it interesting, but i won’t never regret it, since i learn a lot with your thoughts, even me myself, i can say that passion and enthusiasm, but i know that there are times in your life that you want to take some chill, with most good atmosphere.
Great post. It’s nice to know that others feel the same way I do. I too am just a relative ‘beginner’ in the web design world. Learning new languages, techniques and software is an unbelievable rush…You’re right about the time in a day…. there simply isn’t enough.
Just stumbled upon your site today, great tutorials and thoughts! totally digg..passion is what drives your success…my husband laughs at me and how i can get totally absorbed in new CSS techniques…put i guess its passion in the subject and its what makes my job feel more like a privilege!!
thanks look forward to reading all the rest of your blog posts!
Passion is one of the most powerfully creative or
destructive forces known to man. Your passion is what
drives you to the highest level of accomplishments. I completely agree with you that passion is the source of motivation. To me, motivation is the fuel of achievement and its essence determines the level one can easily reach to.
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