Mayur Jobanputra

Ever since I can remember, I have always been interested in a lot of things.  In the early days of the Internet machine, I  started getting involved in HTML, page layouts, content, graphics, bulletin boards, CGI, Javascript monkeying, web server and network technology, and so forth (nothing much has changed except for CGI).

These last few years in my design business, I try and spend less time on the coding now and more on the content creation, customer management, and design side of the business.  In part, its cause the struggle for CSS perfection and browser incompatibility seems to be never-ending (and no, I don’t want to hear about strict compatibility mode either).  I just can’t be bothered to keep up with the CSS mastery required anymore and I was never a coder at heart anyways.  Better off to let a pro do it for 99 bucks. Its sort of like when mother farts – I could hold my breath and bear it, but now I just have to leave the room.

And all that was the Clark Kent side of me outside of my day job.  Over the years as a Technical Writer, Quality Assurance Analyst, Coder, Systems Support and in the last decade (god I’m an old fart now) a Release Engineer.  Looking back, I guess I never did figure out what I wanted. 

Recent challenges at work around career growth and direction have me all flustered too and the situation has forced me to do some rather deep and invasive introspection about what I want to do with my life.  Well my career anyway.  I mean work isn’t life, and life isn’t work, but work pays the bills these days and the web business isn’t where I want it yet.

I am pretty sure I have some degree of AD or MPD or something.  I mean, surely I can’t be the only person on planet earth that has trouble focusing right?  Or I am the only screwed up one that never had the patience to explore one career path long enough?

Perhaps its a gift.  Ya, thats it.  I can be a jack-of-all trades that can fix your broken Internet machine, a digital repairman that you call when you are completely stuck. 

It’s good to know I’m not alone in the blogging world.  That’s for damn sure.  I have seen bloggers with a lot more categories, tags, posts, about all sorts of random chatter. Most bloggers at the very least have something to say about design and the web.  It’s often sidelined by barfing baby photos and a story about their latest sushi experiences.  I suspect bloggers become bloggers for partly this reason to be honest.  Blogging for some is a safe pressure release valve for all the little things that distract them.

An interesting outcome of all the recent self analysis is clarity around who I am and what makes me tick.  I am able to see a more clearly now – I think.  I can also conclude with confidence that the next version of my business face is going to be dead simple and with a narrow focus on web and seo services.  I promise.  Enough with month after month of design changes and wide-ranging service offerings. I shouldn’t punish the visitors of my business site with an endless and confusing offering of services.   

Simple and focused, that’s my business and career mantra now. Thanks heavens I have this personal blog to write about all the other 99 things I think about though.

written by Mayur Jobanputra,
an easily distracted blogger