Ouch – did that hurt?

Did it strike a nerve and make you twinge at what you are currently working on?

Maybe feel a pang of failure in your stomach?

Good.

You can’t rest on laurels that you achieved, months and years ago, you can only focus on the next ones.  If you were to leave your job today, most would remember you for what you were working on at that point in time and not all the incredibly amazing super awesome things you have done.

The last thing you ever… ever… want to hear a customer say is “Version 4.5 was the best” – NO – this release is the best, this release blows that one out of the water and each release is going to get better and better – hang around because my best work is coming!

This doesn’t apply to just Software.  Do you see Ikea still selling furniture from 10 years ago?  They still sell tables and shelves but they’ve improved on them and kept making them better.  Conceivably they could have left the model as is and focussed on more stores to increase market share, but instead they continually iterate.

I recently did a SlideShare on my series of Software Estimation.  I’ve found on average it takes 3 – 4 hours to put one of these things together and this one is not as big as How to Build a Great Team.  I was a bit stymied at the growth/acceptance on How To Build a Great Team that it took me awhile to put another one together in fear of not measuring up to that one.

But at the end of creating it, it was better, I learned some new techniques, tightened my delivery, delivered a solid story and put faith in what I knew.

Now I’m only as good as this release so it’s on to the next thing to be better then this one.

 

 

 

Want more? Check out my book Code Your Way Up – available as an eBook or Paperback on Amazon (CAN and US).  I’m also the co-host of the Remotely Prepared podcast.

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