DAY 224 – Doing More than You Are Responsible For
Success is being willing to do more than you are being paid for. I learned this through trial and error. No college class taught me this. No mentor sat me down to deliver this message. While a designer at AutoTrader I recognized that around the holiday’s most people took time off and were in a rush to leave to get home each day. I started working those hours and saving my vacations for after. When directors would come to the creative floor looking for help with last minute pitches, I would often be the only person around skilled enough to create their visions. I never said no back then. I built mock phone apps complete with animation and sound on several occasions. I also took ownership of a team of designers we had in India even building weekly metric reports (learning advanced PowerPoint and Excel skills) and soon I was presenting that data in weekly meetings to execs. And when it came time to hire a manager over that new team, I eventually got the position over the other candidates. I didn’t spend days complaining about the extra work. I spent that time learning how to do it. I used the experience to build my resume in real time. I forged great relationships with all my execs and vendors from Adobe, Staffing Agencies, Art Institute (I hired from there often) and overseas Managers. I never asked for a raise. I understood the value of the experience. I’m thankful for the lessons learned and I still apply those today. If I commit to work on a project or a team, I’m always willing to do what others are not. My experiences remain to be more valuable than a weekly salary, for they enable me to go and do anything my mind can imagine. #8robinsons #untamedcreativebeings #8robinsonstv #brandmanagement #domore #experiencematters #experiencehasvalue
