If your work isn't remarkable today, you may not make it. Seriously... your business just might not survive. The Era of the Company had three primary virtues: quality of work, speed of delivery, and economy of services. Better. Faster. Cheaper. Today, however, if you're a design type and all you have to offer is some combination of these virtues, you likely won't be around much longer. As discussed earlier, there simply aren't enough jobs to go around, nor are there likely to be enough in the foreseeable future because the carnage in the banking industry isn't over yet. So firms that are nothing but better, faster, and cheaper are a dime a dozen. Don't be one of them. Your work really must be remarkable in some way.

Out of the Pit

How can you climb out of the better, faster, cheaper pit? There are likely many ways, but here's my story: I was once a small-town architect fighting for the next small-town job, which likely was a pre-engineered metal buildings of some sort. For years, I had been a supporter of the principles of the New Urbanism. I wrote letters to the editor, and showed up at City Council meetings, all to little avail. Thirteen years after graduation, I had only influenced one single developer to build New Urbanism. To that point, I'd been nothing more than a cheerleader. It was time to get on the playing field.

How Can I Help You?

So I started going to New Urbanist workshops, and showing up at symposia. I went to design charrettes, asking simply "what can I do to help?" The New Urbanists don't turn down willing hands, so I found plenty of things to do. Really famous New Urbanists started inviting me on their charrettes, which was really cool... these people had been my heroes for years. But it's amazing how many heroes need a helping hand. So I joined the cause, and there has been no turning back. Stunningly great things have happened to me over and over again simply because I showed up and said "what can I do to help?" Find a cause you're passionate about, and join it. You won't look back.

Finding a Need

Once I started asking "what can I do to help," all sorts of needs cropped up. Some of them were initiatives others were already working on, such as the Transect, and they just needed more willing hands. So I helped where I could with those initiatives. But once you open your eyes to needs, you see them all around you. And many of them weren't being met. So about a dozen years ago, I said to myself "I'm going to start finding needs that aren't being met and filling them." In every single case, there were others who were far more qualified to meet that need, but all those people were busy doing other things. So even though my qualifications were very low, my willingness to meet those needs was high. And so, because somebody's gotta do it, I took my best shot. And time and again, things have worked out great as a result.

PS: This post is part of a bigger story outlined in New Media for Design Types. The most recent piece of the story was The Death of Advertising. The next piece is Old Virtues vs. New Virtues.