Read-time = ~7 minutes.
With graduation weeks away many of my colleagues and I are bidding farewell to our academic careers, all be it in good spirits. This shift from the pedantic to the professional iterates the question, "How do I value myself and my work?" and ultimately affords an opportunity to highlight what I call "The Four P's". They are, in order from l greatest to least importance: Passion, Persistence, Portfolio, and (sometimes) Patience.
1. Passion. Let's be honest, if you're graduating with a Master's degree in anything, much less Architecture, you have passion. But to act without discretion I will define what the first P means. Unforunately I am unable to recall or find any (short) appropriate citations and will instead quote an anecdote from Laurence Block's guide for fiction writing.
“A young violin prodigy was walking down the street one day trying to decide whether or not to pursue a life in music when he came upon the most famous violin teacher in the world. Scarcely believing his luck, he stopped the great teacher and asked if he could play for him, thinking he would abandon his dream of a career in music if the great teacher told him he was wasting his time.
The greater teacher nodded silently for him to begin. So he played, beads of sweat soon appearing on his forehead, and when he finished, he was certain he’d given his finest performance. But the great maestro only shook his head sadly and said, “You lack the fire.”
The young musician was devastated. Nevertheless, he returned home and announced his intention to abandon the violin. Instead, he entered the world of business and turned out to have such a talent for it that in a few short years he found himself richer than he’d ever imagined possible.
Almost a decade later he found himself walking down another street in another city when he happened to spot the great teacher again. He rushed over to him. “I’m so sorry to bother you,” he said, “and I’m sure you don’t remember me, but I stopped you on the street years ago to play my violin for you, and I just want to thank you. Because of your advice, I abandoned my greatest love, the violin, painful as it was, and became a businessman and today enjoy great success, which I owe all to you. But one thing you must tell me: how did you know I didn’t have what it takes? How did you know all those years ago I lacked the fire?”
The great teacher shook his head sadly and said only, “You don’t understand. I tell everyone who plays for me they lack the fire. If you had the fire, you wouldn’t have listened.””
The moral of the story is clear, passion is not measured by others but rather by one's own drive. A fantastic, and visually stimulating, example of this assertion is Damien Chazelle's recent 2014 film Whiplash. Passion is important, but most importantly it is self defined.
1. Persistence. I had the pleasure of speaking with Marlin Blackwell in person and his response to my naive query, "How does someone get a job at your firm?" was short but powerful—Be persistent. He then shared a short narrative about an employee whose stubborn endurance eventually whittled away Blackwell's resolve and resulted in the individual receiving an offer to join his office. Persistence is understanding "no thanks" is not a "never". I obtained my first architectural internship during my junior year of high school. I skipped school and made a list of every architecture firm in Dallas. The few firms who responded positively were added to my "hit list". They were inundated with my calls every other day for weeks on end; after two months I was offered a position at PBK a small firm who specialized in education. Persistence is work that gets you work.
1. Portfolio. Portfolio is a specific term which actually means a 'showcase of thought'. Liz Danzico of Core77 puts it much more eloquently than I ever could.
“A portfolio of work is a curated experience. It’s an applicant’s chance to shape the way that I’m viewing his or her approach, methods, process, and best thinking; but oftentimes, a portfolio only contains final pieces, as applicants are overly concerned about presenting perfection. Polish doesn’t communicate process though, and therefore I’m left with only part of the story. Messy problems — and how applicants work through them — can show a great deal more in a portfolio than one finished, airtight solution. It’s then the applicant’s job to curate those into an experience for the portfolio viewer.”
"Polish doesn't communicate process..."
1. Patience. Is a virtue. No, for real. Patience is really important when measuring value. 1 Corinthians 13:4 begins the definition of Love with..."patience". I don't know about you but I tend to use love as a barometer for value. If Bible quotes aren't your cup of tea Leo Tolstoy is quoted saying, "The strongest of all warriors are these two—Time and Patience." And for everyone one else there is both Yoda and Obi Wan Ken-obi from George Lucas's Star Wars; both mentors warn Luke to heed patience, advice he quickly ignores resulting in (spoilers) his right hand being severed from his body.
This post is as much for me as it is anyone who has taken the time to read (or at least skim) the text. Obviously our/my value of work is not defined exclusively by a four word alliteration. However, these major points act as a rough estimate for connecting what we've produced to what that is 'worth'. Creative professions don't really have the luxury of an 'index of value'. NASDAQ does not measure creative potential, so even if you don't use "The Four P's" and instead utilize the "Seven S's" or the "Eight Q's", know that your work is important, it matters, and it's worth investigating how to measure that value.
One final thought. During my undergraduate studies my work was never emphasized, all that mattered was the final review or "jury". Hours, days, were spent toiling for the approval of some unknown critique who would likely scoff at my efforts. My professors encouraged the jury deadline as a standard of measurement. So, like any amateur, once the final review was over my work was 'worthless', value was stripped from any artifacts after the deadline had passed. This resulted in a lack of documentation from my early architectural work—a record I severely miss. Your work matters, you matter, measure it, you'll prove me right!
