Introduction
The French sculptor Auguste Rodin once said: "beauty is everywhere. For our eyes, not lack of beauty, but lack of discovery." We live in a world of rich variety and mystery, there is always the beauty of nature for us to find and learn. So what have you learn from this world? Do you have an eye of discovery?
Personally speaking, I'm a web designer as well as an animal junkie. I love to find the mystery behind the animals. The impression of finding bird nest in childhood is still fresh in my memory. After all these years' experiences, I discovered there are implied rules which typically guarantee the successful survival of animals in nature also suitable for web designers in job. Following these rules could be helpful in the way of search of success. I pick up 4 animals with unique nature that are essentially important to us.
Chimpanzee—Inspiration
Chimpanzee is the close relative of human being. They are smart animals with inspiration. Several years ago, the scientists have found that the Congo Chimpanzee develop a skill of using tool to forage termites. It proves that chimpanzee have inspiration to develop a sustainable way of harvesting food. It is said that using tools could forage 10 times termites than the ordinary way. Maybe it is common from a human perspective, but the message sent by chimpanzee is significant: an inspired method can achieve an outstanding result.
Inspiration is the key factor of being a successful web designer. Image could be beautiful, flash could be dazzled, but only inspiration is unique. The demands of your clients are different, so a distinctive design that demonstrates the unique features of each client requires inspiration. A nice inspiration makes your work stand out of the crowd. There are two elements that shape a nice inspiration from my understanding: an eye of discovery and a thinking pattern of difference. Rodin's quotation is s treasure for us, you need to have an eye of discovery, the more beauty you find, the more resources for you to inspire. And thinking is another key issue. Think differently, jump out from the ordinary pattern and try some new combinations; then maybe you can have something different.
Bee—Huge effort and devotion
When we talk about effort and devotion, I think nothing can be compared with bee. Bee is the most diligent animal in nature. We can see the bees fly over the flower shrubs to make honey. The bees must work hard, because the large portion of nectar is water; suppose that a bee works 10 hours a day, it takes 6 days to collect enough nectar to make a little bit of honey. Besides, making honey is just part of their work, building the comb, fight against the predator and feeding the next generation, all these jobs were done by effort and devotion.
This is also applicable to web designers. We live in the world with fast rhythm; there are a lot of books or courses which claim that they got the shortcut to success. As I see it, the only shortcut of success is hard work and effort. Look at those great figures in our world, in front of the outstanding achievement, do you know how hard they work behind the stage?
A stable client base of a web designer is the best reward of your hard work and devotion. This cannot be achieved by talk tough, but do solid work: collect as much resources as possible, learn more designing method with different tools, update to the latest news of the industry and etc. When you forget about all the fluke illusions and focus all your attention on the job, you can really show yourself and your clients who you are and what you can do.
Salmon Run—Stick with the Goal
Once you set your goal, stick with it regardless of any barrier and difficulty. This is epically illustrated by Salmon. Salmon run is one of the most famous ecological phenomena in the world. Every fall, there are thousands of thousands Salmons returning from the west Canadian coast, there is only one goal for their thousands of miles journey—breeding. They are going to lay eggs at the riverbed of Fraser River. After that, they will die for exhaustion, but their devotion give hope to thousands of new lives.
There are countless difficulties during their journey; they need to adapt the change from salt water to fresh water, hide from the ocean predator's attack, fly over from the stone and meters high fall, escape from the bear's mouth and etc. But whatever difficulties they meet, they stick with the goal and never give up to swim. The most touching scenery is they swim in couple. It seems they are encouraging each other. "Darling, I'm too tired to swim." "No, sweetheart, you can do that, I'm here for ya, c'mon, let's go together!"
This spirit is also important to a web designer. Long-term success doesn't come easy, there is no shortcut. You are going to encounter with millions of barriers on your road: mistakes in coding, bug in a new application or the rejection of the program. So if something in your work is not right, don't quit; try to get to the point and fix it. The process is tough, but it is the process that shapes you into a better man and helps you to get the success you seek. Make yourself a Salmon, stick with your goal without any hesitation.
African Termites—Team Work Spirit
African Termite is tiny in individual, but look at those 4 or 5 meters high mound—the home of Termites, do you think they are still tiny? Of course not, they are strong! It's just like human being build a 300 meters high building. African Termite is a highly socialized animal with clear and strict working division. A group of Termites contains millions of individuals; each individual is an excellent team worker; they have a clear understanding of their jobs; who is responsible for transporting mud? Who is responsible for building? Who is responsible for food? The whole team is highly organized.
Rome was not built in a day, not by one person either. As a designer, if you haven't surrounded yourself with a team, do that as soon as possible. Don't expect to do everything by yourself, that's absolutely unnecessary, because nothing can be successful only as a one-person show. There are people out there with skills and talents, just look around and find the guys to cooperate.
Once you joined the team, you need to make a clear understanding of your duty and the common goal of the team. In nature, the common goal of termites is to build a solid castle and make a survival, each individual complete their work effectively. In human society, the goal of your team is obviously to seek success, and each member needs to play their roles. No one is invincible in all fields, but each one has a personal advantage, some skilled in Photoshop for drawing, some specialized on Flash to HTML5 converting and some expertise in coding. Make yourself an African Termite, and make your team highly organized; then you are able to build a larger castle than your imagination.
Find the real treasure with your eye of discovery and make yourself different from the rest.
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