Gratitude seeds humility
In an ideal world, every designer wishes to pick and choose their favorite projects/clients to undertake; one that resonates with our style, personality or cause. While only a handful of decorated ones can pridefully claim this, for the rest of the majority (especially at the start of your career) this can seem far from reality. A mental note mantra; be thankful for any projects that come our way, as it is the client's baby and not every child is born perfect. Treat each child with decent respect and that is how any project will shine despite how initial appearance form. Ultimately, it serves a good challenge to our creative skills and cultivates compassion that no jobs are too small for our ego.
“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”
Patience nourishes inner peace
As designers, the sudden change of concept or client briefings at the final presentation, bringing forward deadlines that are already on a tight schedule or simply dealing with difficult team members; are all too familiar unfortunate scenarios that we encounter sometime in our career paths. As the saying goes; we can't control the weather, but we can always change our reaction to prepare ourselves to embrace the unpredictable. It reminds us not to lose sight of the ultimate goal; that is to deliver our best outcome even under the worst of circumstances.
“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”
Failure happens only if you quit
When drowning, a life vest is our best bet to stay afloat. In order to keep breathing design, we must suit up our creative passion armor! Any designer would be lying to deny that the thought of quitting has not cross their minds from time to time especially when dealing with clients breathing down your neck for the next 30 countless revisions with deadlines that were due yesterday! For the determined survivors, whilst not knowing what lies at the end of the winding road; deep down there is an unspoken conviction to not prematurely snuff out the creative fire as the simple solution might just be discovered around the corner.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”