Mission Accomplished

Every time I do one of these posts, I go back and read what I promised to accomplish during the year. I’m pleased to say that I did almost all of them.

I traveled like I said I wanted to. Right before I started my new job, I finally attended one of the largest conferences in the US, SXSW. I had a blast. It was pretty cool to meet all of the familiar faces I see on Twitter everyday and to share a few beers with them. Not to mention the incredible weather and the mouth-watering food the south has to offer. I have to say though, it isn’t necessary to buy a badge. I ended up spending more time hanging out with friends and new acquaintances than I did at sessions. The ones I did go to were great, don’t get me wrong, but I personally wouldn’t get a badge if I went again.

I was also lucky enough to go on my first trip to Europe with Ingrid, my good friend Chris, and his girlfriend, Elisa. Our first stop was Barcelona where Elisa is originally from. Me being as ignorant as I am about the world outside of upstate NY, it was mind-blowing. It was so refreshing to visit a place where most people only get to see in the movies. The way the city was built fascinated me. Everything was beautiful.

We then flew to Rome, Italy, a place I never would have thought I’d get a chance to visit. Everything about the city was breathtaking. The architecture, the food, the wine, the art; it all felt surreal. Me being partly italian, it was an honor to see where generations of my family came from.

Last year I said I wanted to learn more in 2011. I’d say that was pretty successful as well. In the 9 months that I’ve been at Skillshare, I’ve learned so much about design, business, start-ups, and asian food. It’s been one of the best rides of my life so far.

Breakout Year

I, along with many others, think that 2012 will be a huge breakout year for education. It’s only January and there already has been some incredible advancements. Khan Academy is killing it, a new public school was created to teach kids programming, and we’re working on a bunch of great things too. It’s amazing to finally see education gain some attention with talented people all trying to make it better.

Just like 2011, I’ll be pushing myself to keep learning too. I’ve started searching for a mentor, I’ll be reading more and co-creating a book club, and I’ve got a few side project ideas I’ll be working on with our other designer and new friend, Andrew.

I’m looking forward to an exciting year!

Steve Jobs, one of the greatest CEOs in history

Steve undoubtedly changed technology forever. His vision was impeccable. He affected millions of people’s everyday lives. Let’s work a little bit harder today for Steve.

Last week, my boss, Mike, gave the team a small internal Skillshare class. We do it every once in a while and they’re always very good. This particular one was about productivity. I’d like to share it with you.

Success

A while back, Mike did some research on the recipe for success. There was a particular resource that noticed all the things successful people do in their lives. Most of them don’t drink, don’t smoke, exercise in the morning, and so on. The most glaring piece of evidence found was that almost all of them wake up early to get their most difficult work done. So here I am, trying to keep this blog alive.

CREATIVE | HUSTLE | EXECUTE

The last topic that was covered in the class resonated with me the most. These three words go hand-in-hand with each other. Without creativity comes mediocrity. Without hustling, there is no pressure to finish. Without executing, there is no satisfaction of completing something and learning from your mistakes.

I used to only focus on hustling and being creative; most of my projects never saw the light of day (many of you can verify that). I’m going to approach every project I do personally and at work with these three words in mind. We hope that when people talk about our team at Skillshare, they say that we are creative, we hustle, and we always execute. I hope people will say the same about me too.

About two months ago, I attended a Skillshare class about being in control of your passions taught by the talented Amber Rae. It broke down the huge tasks I wanted to accomplish in life and turned them into actionable steps.

The other person, whom closed the deal for me, is my friend Sarah Judd Welch. She created an independent study plan for herself that broke down “classes” in a sense, into actions steps such as reading a certain book or interviewing influential people.

I’m definitely someone who understands that the only way to get things accomplished is to focus and just do it. So, I started my own “learning plan” recently and I’m super excited about it. It’s not much yet; I’ve got a list of high level things I’d like to accomplish. I’m going to break those down into easy, actionable steps to make learning much more doable. These small spurts of research coupled with Skillshare classes will make learning .

I encourage you to all give this is shot. I know everyone has something they’d like to learn. Most of us who work on the web, including myself, have been self-taught for the most part. Why not try to repeat it with other passions?

My Learning Plan

Keep checking back, for my progress!

Life has been great. NYC is treating me very well. I’ve met so many amazing people, ate a ton of incredible food, and have been sweating my ass off (it’s been so damn hot, although I’m not complaining).

Skillshare

Work has been going great. Over the past few months, our team has grown to 6, including me. They are really nice people who I’ve grown to have an awesome friendship with. I think Mike and Malcolm’s policy of having an amazing culture is a huge key to success for startups, and it’s showing. I’m continually looking forward to the future.

My trip to Europe

I just returned from a once-in-a-lifetime trip Barcelona & Rome. My girlfriend and I went with one of my best friends and his girlfriend, who happens to be from Spain. We were really lucky to have gone with them to get the authentic, local experience.

Trip to Europe — Check out the Flickr set

Rome was a different story. It was full of tourists. The architecture, all of the art, and the vibe was simply beautiful. The food was…well you can imagine how mind-blowingly good the food was. Those Italians know how to make a great cup of coffee as well. The only negative parts were all the things surrounding the touristy experience: the occasional rude service, the annoying street sellers, and the people marketing all the hop-on/hop-ff busses. I would do it all again in a heartbeat though. Thanks to my friends for the invite!

So what else is new?

I have two projects I’m working on that will definitely see the light of day. One is something to keep up with your everyday, small to-dos, inspired by something you guys already use and love (well at least I love them). The other project is going to be a personal site for someone I know very, very well. It’s codenamed Potassium for now. Depending on who you are, you will know who I’m talking about. Stay tuned!

The job

Working at Skillshare is everything I hoped it would be and more. The team I’m working are a bunch of really talented guys. It feels so rewarding to be a part of something where I have say and can partly call my own.

Skillshare HQ

We’ve been super busy the past couple weeks preparing for the launch so the days have been long. However, I’ve never worked in a place where I could stay for 12 – 16 hours and still enjoy it. I think taking this job was the perfect decision for me so far.

I’ve become friends with some amazing people from the office too, since we share space with Carbonmade, Crush+Lovely, and Family Records. Everyone there is super cool and supporting of each other. It’s also really nice to have smart people to bounce ideas off of sometimes. Again, I couldn’t ask for a better position to be in.

To do a little Skillshare pimpin’, check out our feature in the New York section of DailyCandy and also our small write up from Tina Roth Eisenberg on swissmiss.

The city

So far, living in “The City” has been pretty exciting. I’m still getting my feet wet, and will be for a while, but I really like it here so far. The only things that are a little tough to get used to are not having a car, and the subway system.

Growing up, I thought everyone eventually got a car. Not here. It sucks a little when grocery shopping because you either need to suck it up and walk with a couple bags, get one of those wheeled carts, or spend a few bucks on a taxi. Another downside is the fact that you need to walk to where you are going no matter what the weather is like. I thought I’d be okay wearing the same amount of layers that I did when I was home, but I was very wrong. When I’m home, I’m usually in and out no matter where I go. Here, you are outside for a few minutes at a time so you need to make sure you are covered.

The subway system is amazing and confusing at the same time. The fact that you can go anywhere in the NYC area without driving a car is pretty incredible. Also, compared to owning a car, the monthly bill is pretty cheap. On the other hand, navigating through the subway system is not so incredible. Rather than label the lines north, east, south, and west, they label them the endpoints of the lines. To know which way you are going on the G train, you better learn that Queens is north and Church Ave. is south or you will be getting frustrated very often.

All-in-all, New York is amazing. There are so many things to do, so many incredible places to eat (no matter what you’re in the mood for), and with summer coming up, I only see it getting better. So when are all of you moving here?!

Skillshare

A long time coming

Design is definitely my passion. I love everything about it. I want to do it forever. That is why I’ve been searching for ways to design as much as possible. I started freelancing early last year, but I just didn’t have a lot of time to take it serious enough. I really wanted to find a full-time position designing so I can gain experience and for the simple fact that I’d be doing what I love every day. There were other great opportunities, but NYC is close to my family and Skillshare seems like a great fit.

I’m super excited to get working! I’ll be moving down to the city very soon and starting at Skillshare mid-March. I’ll be posting most of my updates on Twitter, so if you want to stay in the loop: @jakeprzespo.

School Isn’t a Waste

Although Luke had a hard time finding a job after graduating with a master’s degree, he knows that he’d be worse off if he didn’t have his schooling.

I’m not confident that schooling has a direct connection with employment anymore. But if I hadn’t received the kind of education I did, I would be less of an active citizen and less engaged in the world in ways I would not have discovered on my own.

The idea of going to school and getting a job is not as reliable as it used to be. Many things could have had an affect on it: the economy, the quality of college is getting worse, or simply because more people are acquiring college degrees. Either way, there are many things that can be learned just by attending college.

Not Finding a Job

Everyone already knows how high the unemployment rate is in our country and has been reminded of it for about a year or so. I’m sure we all know someone who is out of a job and is probably having a hard time finding another one. One of my friends is in a similar situation. He went to college and has a business degree. He’s a really smart guy. Right now he is stuck doing jobs that he is either overqualified for or aren’t in his field. According to the article in GOOD, this is an issue for a couple of reasons.

One obvious problem is the fact that overqualified individuals are taking jobs from the people that are qualified, which makes it that much harder for those individuals. Also, the longer one stays in a position that they are overqualified in, the more likely they are not to leave.

Use Your Skills

Many people have something they are good at. Whether it is baking, keeping finances in check, or designing websites, it is probably a skill that other people will pay for. Setting up a small business for yourself is not as difficult as you would think and should not be a reason to stop you. At the very least, everyone should look into it. It is extremely rewarding to work for yourself and it has a possibility to turn into something permanent. The key is to not be too afraid to try it out and put in the effort.

I am grateful and very fortunate to have the job I have and also be able to freelance part time. It allows me to experiment and learn about running a business. I understand that some people are not able to start something on their own because of the nature of the work. To those I say, hang in there. If you have the skills, you will be hired soon enough.

What I Did

One of my goals of this past year was to register as a business and start freelancing. I’m glad to say that it is checked off my list. In April, I registered Jake Przespo LLC and did some small projects. The two main projects I had were doing some front end development on Thingd and the complete design and development of Pulse Interactive. It was both fun and challenging to start freelancing. I encourage anyone who has a skill that they are able to do on their own to take full advantage of it. It is very rewarding.

I wanted to work on a few web apps, but unfortunately I didn’t get to work on a full blown one this year. However, I did get some time to make my own photoblog with a small admin backend. I will probably build it out more this year and maybe release for free.

Another goal I was not able to accomplish this year was building an iOS app. Fortunately for me, the multi-talented Mike Rundle started Design Then Code, a series of tutorials for designing and developing iOS apps. I will be carrying my goal of building an iOS app over to 2011.

Lastly, the topic of school. I received my Bachelor’s in March and will see how far that will take me. I still would love to go to a school like SVA, but feel confident that I can push myself to learn on my own.

2011 Plans

Learn. I want to do anything I can to learn more about design, development, typography — anything really. Whether it is by getting a new job, doing a lot of freelance work, or a bunch of personal projects. I want to get invloved as much as possible. I have been doing a lot of that this year, but want to push myself even more in 2011.

I also want to travel a lot more this year. In 2010, I went to Vegas and San Francisco. It was great. It’s so awesome to see different parts of the world. I have plans to go to Austin and Spain this year, but I ‘d like to plan something else as well.

I launched my photoblog site so that it would push me to take more photographs. As you can see, it hasn’t worked very well. I plan to take a lot more shots this coming year. I always look back at my old photos and always tell myself I need to shoot more, so this year I will.

Let’s do it

Let’s make this year as awesome, if not more awesome, than 2010 was. Let’s be more productive, more passionate, and continue to make awesome stuff. Ready, break!

My recently released photoblog

Behind The Scenes

Most of my interests and background have been in web design. I wanted to use this project as an excuse to sharpen up on my backend skills. I built my own little CMS for it along with a little admin section. I ended up learning a ton more about PHP and played around with the .htaccess file a bit.

I’ll be posting most of my photos to my Flickr still, but will use my new photoblog as a way to showcase my favorite shots as I take them. Check it out and let me know what you guys think.