Hi amazing people!

I was just laid off from an e-learning company. My job was as a Multimedia Programmer using proprietary software.

The situation is this...I do not have a degree, and many times I have felt fraudulent taking jobs where I had no degree, but some light experience. I am self-taught in many programs like Photoshop, QuarkXPress...but I have a limited portfolio. One thing I know for certain...I love Photo Retouching/Imaging!!!! I become immersed and creative. I want to start my own business...I have no collateral, no credit, very little money to jumpstart but I have access to some equipment. My question is...is this market booming or bombing? My skills and quality of work is exceptional feverd by a deep love of the work and relationships with people that are having the work done. What are some options for getting this out of my mind and into reality?

Thanks!! Candace

-- Candace Black (cmblack@usa.net), January 05, 2001

Answers

Candace, legitimacy isn't what degree you have, legitimacy is whether you can walk the talk. I've met more than my share of assholes posing under the disguise of intelligence because they hold a certain piece of paper. Those pieces of paper are useful for screening and for weeding out and so are useful as competitive tools and without them, yes it is an uphill climb to claim legitimacy. Yet in our lifetime we have seen others who have been immensely successful while deliberately bypassing the hallowed halls of education. Bill Gates chose Microsoft over completing his Harvard Degree. The fact that he could cake walk is degree was neither here or there, the question was whether the degree was holding back his passion and desire to do something greater. Yes it was. I also know of people who where awarded degrees long way after they had proved to be successful without one but who needed that recognition to put the icing on their cake, in these cases it is Universities who honor them rather than they who study for honors. If you are walking the talk and delivering there is nothing to be ashamed of. Yes it is a competitive handicap not having a degree but a degree is not a form of apartheid, it does not say that without one you cannot make it in life.

The option of turning your dreams into reality is simple in words but when we draw what our dream looks like on paper, it is turning into a mobile beast, into something that moves, a construct that you can build and follow and something that moves you to take action that is the real test of character. You have already stated half of the battle by saying that you have passion. The enemy of passion is depression and when you begin to take that road, there will be times when you wish that you never started the journey but it is ones ability to ride through those roadblocks and doing those things that you have to do that determine whether dreams turn into nightmares or become beautiful realities (even if that reality does not succeed financially - nothing great in life is guaranteed). The problem I see right now is that your expectations are based on what others think of you rather than what you think of yourself. That itself is a roadblock in the form of an invisible unbreakable window, one which you press against again and again and that will frustrate you because you can see the road ahead but know that you are not able to move. The first step is to remove that mental wall because you can't break that kind of window, you get rid of it by realizing that it was never there in the first place other than what you held in your belief systems and your illusions of what business is.

You talk about going into business but business is not a lonely thing, in fact it is the least of lonely pursuits unless you want to go bust before you begin. Consider what partnerships you can get into as well as sole trader possibilities. Get versed in the financial and marketing aspects. Look into what it really takes to create a business plan. The business plan is the first step to turning your dreams into reality. Think about all the people who you will have to meet in order to make your dreams a reality and who will help you on the way whether you think you need their help or not; that might be thinking about the banker that helps you secure financing, the lawyer who helps you with incorporation, the bookkeeper that helps you with your accounts, the outsource services that might help you with marketing or supplies. Business is sharing your vision and plugging into the available sockets of society or even creating a brand new socket for others to plug into.

Above all, keep one heartbeat alive along all points of your journey. The passion Candace, it is all in the passion. That is the one thing that I want to keep alive in my own business, it is the one thing that drives me to write this to you. For if I cannot convey passion in these words it is because I have an empty passion reservoir. What I do know is that to fill it, all I have to rekindle it with an enthusiasm and spirit strong enough to flow dreams into and turn them into a liquid reality. Working capital should be liquid after all.

M.

M Profile at: http://www.fastcompany.com/fasttalk/replypost.html? p=9738

"To be or not to be that is the question" A quote by Willy Shakes. Mantra of M. "Life is about Private Relations not Public Relations"

-- Mark Zorro (zorromark@consultant.com), January 08, 2001.