Magic Growth Formula

I recently planted a very small seed. A bit of an idea. A plan to improve myself a little. A single day's resolution that was intended to better myself (along with a few friends) over the course of an entire year. That seed was called Project 52. Since then, it's grown quite a bit larger…

I think of how Rick Moranis in Little Shop of Horrors (Netflix, IMDB) must've felt when his cute little plant (Audrey) suddenly grew up and started eating the entire town. Granted, all I'm feeding Project 52 so far is a healthy diet of RSS, but the unexpectedness of coming home to a large and hungry project wasn't at all on my radar. The sheer size of it took me off guard for a bit. But, I'm back in control now and ready to take on whatever happens with this little monster of mine (okay, did one of you just think “That’s what she said”?).

I should have written this post a week ago. But to be honest, I was so swept away with trying to sort out roughly 700 site feeds, see who was posting and who wasn't, filter out all of the errors, continue communication with people involved in Project 52, that I lowered the priority of getting my own site published on time. Lest you think of me as a hypocrite (telling people to post once a week, when I can barely manage that myself), it does seem to happen like that sometimes. Where I serve others before I serve myself. One of the many values I learned as a kid that have stuck with all these years.

Mistakes were Made

It's with some small amount of shame that I can admit my mis-handling of the launch of Project 52. I didn't think big enough for it to grow into. I had no plan in place to deal with the amount of work that would suddenly appear in my inbox. To be honest, I'm just an ordinary guy, not used to any thing I do striking a global nerve such as this. My idea was so focused on having about 20 people involved, maybe 50 at the most, that having a 10 to 20 fold increase in reach was just laughable. Boy, was I ever wrong!

Fall Down, Stand Up

To be wrong however, doesn't mean to give up. I hate giving up. And I believe in this particular goal so much that I refuse to give up. It means far too much to me personally. Because I remember a day, before “status updates” existed. Before we could post YouTube videos. Before Flickr photos. A day where people actually blogged ideas and dreams and stories on their websites. Back when content was quality and quality was king.

Here's the funny and supremely ironic bit of sauce on that taco: The time that I'm talking about in the above paragraph? Yeah, I totally used to blog back then too, but my posts were mostly fluff. I was a Flash and CD-Rom developer who was romanced by all of the talk that was coming out of the standards community.I was a fan of the rockstars who wrote these amazing articles about web design. Since then, many of those guys have gone on to write books, I still write fluff, and the web feels like it's missing something important because everyone else has gone on to nothing but status updates. How many times have you posted on Twitter today?

Moving On

I'd like to share with you some of the things I've gone through and what the future holds for me and Project 52.

• I plan on continuing, and focusing on, my illustration work. It's been my calling for a long time now, and I have no intentions of ignoring my favorite talents.
• Project 52 is going to evolve into something a little more appropriate for what it specifically needs. Once the site gets moved over to a new host and some of the documentation is written up, I'll be sure to share it with everyone. Keep an eye out.
• Blogging and video tutorials are definitely in my future. Who remembers the Artcast? Well, as soon as the gears can be shifted over to it without crushing anything else, you'll be getting more than a fair share more. And no longer focused on just Photoshop, either.

Thank You

2010 is starting off in all the right ways. We're only a couple of weeks into January, and I'm already excited to see what comes next. This is something I couldn't have done without a solid network of people who support me. I want to thank each and every one of you that has supported me in my ups and downs. During the times when I probably sounded a little insane, or depressed, or manic, or just an excited boy who has a passion for all things creative.