Play To Your Strengths
BrianAlvey writes "Everything I Need To Know About Web Design I Learned Watching Oz".
Every week or two I get email from someone asking me how they can get ahead in the web business. I assume its because theyve already written someone else, but they didnt get a response quickly enough and some college admissions deadline is looming. So I tell them this: Cheat. Stack the deck in your favor. Use your own unique skills to compete on the web. If youre a shoe salesperson and you want to break into the web game, dont start out as a novice Java developer competing with expert Java developers. Unless you have some latent mutant ability that will help you scale Javas steep learning curves, youll be crushed. Instead, take on a sales role for a small web shop somewhere and pick the brains of the rest of the team to get up to speed on what can and cant be done on the web. Dont start out on the bottom. Start out as high up as you can and make lateral career moves. Ill never be the best artist or the best programmer in a room full of web designers, but Im pretty well rounded. So if Im competing with creative people, I try to beat them technically. Likewise, if Im competing with technical people, I do my best to pound them on the creative side. In Oz, the people who rose to power were the ones who made the best use of their unique talents and attributes.