Thursday, November 29, 2007

Is it ready?

A few years ago when I was interviewing for my first real job (quite funny, another day), I read somewhere that if asked about your “weaknesses,” you should not actually tell the truth (“I’m habitually late” or “I struggle with authority” or “at my old job, they called me ‘Mr. CYA’”) instead you should say something that would actually be perceived as a positive to a potential employer.

Something like “I’m a workaholic” or “I’m a perfectionist” represented the ideal answer – an answer that really wasn’t negative at all to a grind-‘em-up kind of boss. As this was clearly the type of boss I attracted, or could find, these were the lines I used. Amazingly, no one asked a pimply 22-year-old guy how he knew he was a workaholic when his most impressive employment to-date had been washing golf clubs at the local country club. I can assure you, I had not stayed late at the golf shop, just scrubbing away to get that perfect shine on Mr. and Mrs. Smith’s wedges.

Anyway, so now that I have worked for 20 years, the funny part is that for a lot of things at work, I am a bit of a perfectionist. My perfectionist streak is just that – a bit streaky. It seems to come in fits and starts – it is not consistent, but it is consistently there. But sometimes, you have to put an end to perfectionism, and go with what you have.

Learn from mistakes, make the product better, repeat. A lot.

We have been working on our site (divorce360.com) since May. It has been fun, frustrating, challenging, humbling [insert traditional entrepreneurial jargon here] and a terrific experience. I have learned a lot about myself – some good, some not – and I believe we are all proud of our effort. Helping people to face a difficult topic is an exciting challenge. To me, the Web was built for this type of niche content.

We have been making big and little changes to the site for at least a month. Some features are missing – the business directory – and some things are a little more “duct-tapey” than I want to admit to myself, but on the whole, I think it’s a strong effort. I have noticed is we all want to keep tweaking – I honestly believe we could keep editing and moving and adding for another six months or more before admitting we were ready.

We picked a date, we fixed ‘til then, we went a bit longer and – boom – we published. And here we are – the unveiling…..

No comments: