I Made Lemonade

What’s the saying, “God laughs at our best laid plans”? Or something like that. At any rate, life did not work out quite the way I imagined when I made plans to move, temporarily, to Boston. A few days before my scheduled move, the director of the mini-series I was scheduled to work phoned to say that the movie we were documenting didn’t make it off the ground. The advance team of producers were packing up and heading home. Buzz kill.  What to do?

After spending the afternoon deliberating my next move, I decided to go ahead with my Boston plans. To be honest, as Boston was approaching, my excitement about the broad opportunities this move inspired were even more exciting than the film project itself. I was realizing, fully realizing, that I can work from anywhere. Equally exciting was moving in with Corinna, taking pictures, creating short movies just for fun, and taking a break from all of the “stuff” (literal and figurative) that I’d accumulated over the past few years.

Later that same evening, a then-prospective client called to confirm their interest in hiring me on an on-going basis to improve and maintain their web presence.  I didn’t need the work in order to move to Boston, but having a bit more work makes my trip to Boston a bit of reward to myself.

I am now just over a week into my time in Boston and can’t imagine it any other way. Yes, working on a film again would be fun, but it would also be very time consuming, and I’m keeping myself busy. I’ve gone to yoga with my housemate Amy, been biking all around the city, including 28 miles yesterday with Corinna, taken some picture (check out my Media page for updates), and am going to edit together some fun video footage from my bike trip yesterday. It has been absolutely fantastic. And I began Danish lessons!

It’s not all sugar

It’s easy to tell a tale about how fantastic things are going, but they didn’t just magically fall into place. First, I had to build my portfolio and strike out on my own, a big step in and of itself. Over the past year of working for myself, I’ve been steadily honing my craft (and my business skills). I networked in my own way. Rather than attending networking events, I consistently deliver quality results to my existing clients, go above and beyond what is expected, and never refuse a request for help. My reputation for good work, and a solid work ethic, is growing which makes landing clients that much easier. With my most recent client, I’ volunteered with the organization in the past and kept in close contact with a number of the staff members. They came to me for my web development skills, yes, but also for my understanding and commitment to their goals.

What about you?

What preparations are you making now to be ready for life’s lemons in the future? How have you learned from unexpected developments in the past?