“I strive to create great things, resulting in satisfied people”

It took me several hours, multiple attempts, over many months to write that simple sentence, but I think it sums me up.  I am, by training, an Industrial Designer and Mechanical Engineer.  However I seem to gain a similar amount of pleasure from cooking food, taking photos, delivering a speech or writing my blog.   I like to make satisfying things, I gain pleasure in understanding why and how to make things better, and I enjoy thinking about how to work with other people in the pursuit of doing these things.

Why even bother taking the time to write down what it is that I do?  After quite a few years in the field, and with a bit of experience under my belt, I wanted to pause and reflect on where I have come from, where I am right now, and perhaps most importantly where I want to go.  To do that, I need a foundation, and a set of principles.

So, please indulge me, as I dissect these words;  “I strive to create great things, resulting in satisfied people”

First of all, I wanted a statement that avoided common jargon and advertising speak, and that summed up the message in a short, natural-sounding soundbite.  For a while I had “I strive to create great products, resulting in satisfied customers“, but my aspirations extend beyond work alone, and include more people than solely customers.  Yep, I aim to please, and enjoy delivering the goods for the team, the company … and I vainly hope do good in the world.

I also realise I am not Buckminster Fuller; I don’t think I am trying to create a ‘dent in the universe’.  I am a ‘craftsman’ at heart, and I enjoy the sheer act (the verb) of designing things, as many designers do.  If I can make some things that I am proud of, and that other people admire, I will be happy.  Ego, fed.  Somewhat.

But for me, design is as much a cerebral activity.  I strive, and this brings a desire to understand, to postulate, improve, optimise and to inspire change.  The act of writing about or verbalising the process, communicating the idea, or crafting the pitch is even more agonising than doing the design itself.  I might even find it easier to talk about others’ achievements, since there is a reduced bragging ‘overhead’.

And ‘Resulting’?  Not sure.  I’ll leave that for the next version.  I did, however, consider why there was no full stop.

Austin architecture … perhaps adding to my contemplative mood right now.

That’s my kimono open with my tackle dangling in the breeze; so what do you do?