“It’s not for you”

“For everyone else, though, the ability to say, “It’s not for you,” is the foundation for creating something brave and important. You can’t do your best work if you’re always trying to touch the untouchable, or entertain those that refuse to be entertained.

“It’s not for you.”

This is easy to say and incredibly difficult to do. You don’t have much choice, though, not if you want your work to matter.”

Seth Godin, Seth’s blog

 

My work does matter, and I agree with Seth, it is hard to do.  Hard to say “it’s not for you”. As a young architect I expended a great deal of energy trying to entertain those that refuse to be entertained. Trying to fit square pegs into round holes. The desire to practice architecture creates a tunnel vision; clouds rational thinking and blinds you to clients and projects that are not right for you. Architecture requires conviction. A belief in a core set of principles that guide the creative process.

You can’t be all things to all people.

It has taken me almost 30 years to consistently say “it’s not for you”.  To say this is what I believe in; this is my truth and have the conviction that there are clients out there that “it” is for. And it’s hard. Especially in this economy.

But we’re guided by our convictions. And one project created in accordance with those core beliefs is better than 10 projects where you just go through the motions just looking to get paid.

Not everyone hears the music you dance to. Just have conviction that a dance partner isn’t that far away.

Turn the music up and keep dancing.

 

Robert Vecchione is an architect/designer and principal of the multidisciplinary firm Cobrooke Ideas-Architecture-Design (www.cobrooke.com)