Ann's Snack Bar Sep 26 Patrick Clements

Some people just get it.  Ann's Snack Bar located in Atlanta, GA is run by a temperamental old woman that has as much charm in her as there is grease in her burgers. (If you ever had one you will know what I am talking about).  Here is the thing.  She is about 70 something, she is open 7 days a week, she runs the place by herself, it takes nearly 2 hours to order and eat, and she strictly enforces the rule of accommodating only 7 people at time.  (Trust me...you don't want to walk in to her place if there is not an open stool at the counter).  Her famous dish is called the Ghetto Burger, which I dare any man to try and eat the combo with fries by themselves.  So what is the deal and why is the Wall Street Journal writing about her? Why do people stand and wait for 2 hours for a 2,000 calorie burger?

It is simple.  She has found the one thing that she does well and she loves to do it.  It shows and because of this people will talk about it and write about it and sing praises about it.   

Secrets to bigWebApps Success Sep 17 Patrick Clements

I recently read a blog post from 37 Signals called Secrets to Amazon's success.  Here are some of the key points that are very particular to the bigWebApps culture and philosophy.

• Work from the customer backward. Focus on value you want to deliver for the customer.
• Force developers to focus on value delivered to the customer instead of building technology first and then figuring how to use it.
• End up with a design that is as minimal as possible. Simplicity is the key.
• Innovation can only come from the bottom. Those closest to the problem are in the best position to solve it. any organization that depends on innovation must embrace chaos.

These points to be fantastic.  One, because these are some of the very threads we have woven in our organization and truly feel this is the best way to grow any company  Two, because it's reassuring to know that these are the same principles in which successful company like Amazon uses. 

The hardest one to remember is to keep things simple.  Many times have we found ourselves going down the path of 'what ifs' and 'if this happens then we need to plan for this'.  It is a lot easier and more cost effective to just develop it as simple as possible using feedback from our customers.  Then we just let them tell us if it works or not.  It comes back to a phrase we repeat every so often....

"Any idiot can make something simple complex....only a genius can make something complex simple."

...and we give most of this credit to our customers.

Do What You Love To Do Sep 05 Patrick Clements

I recently came into contact with two instances that made me really reflect on the purpose of getting up and making something out of each and every day.  Seth Godin wrote a blog over Labor Day brilliantly titled "Labor Day".  Initially reading it made me think about the movie Jerry McGuire and how after eating a bad slice of pizza Jerry ended up writing what he called his 'Mission Statement'.  Seth demonstrates there is a difference between working hard in the manual muscle aching sense and working hard in the 'using your head and working smart' sense.  I think it is goes a little more beyond this statement.  It is about discovering what truly makes you tic, your passion, and then pouring your efforts into making it a reality.  This is when work is no longer work, but something that drives you and gets you out of bed in the mornings.  People like Richard Branson, Steve Ballmer, and Carly Fiorina have found what drives them and they have committed themselves to be the best at it.  There isn't separation between work time and personal time...it just becomes your Life.  When you find this then you will end up with something really great.

The second instance came when I was watching The Universe on the History Channel.  It's a must see if you haven't seen an episode.  It really puts in perspective how really short our individual time frame is  and how really monumental insignificant some of our day to day conflicts and barriers appear.  It even calls into question on why we have mortal conflict on this planet when we are all apart of the same origin - different topic all together though :)

With these two take aways it reaffirms to me that each day I should be spending it following what I love to do.  Time is short, my opportunity will be gone fast, and a billion years from now no one even notice.  I don't need to waste time getting hung up on bureaucracy or 'can't do's' from people. 

Professionally, I enjoy creating and designing software solutions that help people.  I enjoy working with our team to constantly implement new and exciting new technologies.  I love talking and meeting with people and learning what new ideas they have to make our solutions better.  These are they things that make me tic and my lil nugget that I am adding to the cosmos.