The buck stops here!
The first thing one realizes when becoming a Lone Designer is that you really are… alone. Whether you’ve come out of a corporate environment, or just graduated from college, there comes a single moment in time when you’re sat down hard on your backside and faced with the realization that…
Wow, the buck really stops with me!
No longer do you have a corral of fellow designers or art directors, or that friendly design tutor who always smells of mint, covering your butt. If you don’t know how to do something – you either learn to do it yourself, or you fail.
No question about it.
There’s two types of working people; there are those who can’t stand being without a support network. They have to stay with the herd, surrounded by protective elements such as family, employer, church or community groups. Then there are those who enjoy the challenge and excitement associated with going it alone, and thrive on the sense of achievement that comes with pulling something off that most people wouldn’t attempt.
Chances are that if you’re a Lone Designer, you’re one of the latter variety. Where the ‘safe’ people choose to holiday at big-name hotels, in places like Waikiki or Rome or Las Vegas, you’re buying a one-way ticket to Kathmandu with all your possessions bound up in a single backpack.
It’s people like you who sailed off the edge of the world seeking something no one else had ever seen before. And for that I salute you, for I’m like you. Not for me the cotton-wool smothering of a salary and stable employment. Instead I take my chances with my skills, my cunning and my knowledge. And I’m usually happy to be on my own.
But no matter how independent I am, there will always be times when I wish I had somebody nearby who knows exactly what I’m going through. Even if only to bounce ideas from. The thing is, there’s no shame in this. All great adventurers and explorers went through the same experience; moments of self doubt, periods of melancholy brought about by isolation. Like when you first step off the plane at Kathmandu and ask yourself “what have I done?”
Which is why even the bravest of Lone Designers sometimes needs to reach out and touch somebody. Even if it’s just to ask ‘what do you think of this design?’ or ‘is it worthwhile purchasing this software?’ or ‘how can I convince my husband to give me another six months of this rather than going back to the old firm?’
There are tens of thousands of us in this situation. So even when you wake up one morning and think ‘Oh God, I’m alone!’, you’re not.