Discovering Myself Again ... Thoughts on Past Mistakes

Hi there,

It’s been a long time since I posted something in my blog. The reason for it is because I went through a rough experience at my job. And there are a few things I would like to share with you about it.

There is no doubt that when working in projects that are challenging we can become someone else. The long nights of work, hard deadlines, personality conflicts, and stress can suck the soul out of us before we can say “A monkey stole my banana”.

In addition, because we want our projects to be successful, and want the customer to get a high quality work from us, we take it personally and we are willing to do whatever it takes to make it work.

Now, let’s add a layer of difficulty to our willingness to make something work. What about if you have a PM does not know what he/she is doing? How do we make it work then? Further, what about if because of this PM your reputation is being put to the test? And, what about if the PM is not willing to see that he/she is not doing a logical and high quality work that is fair to the customer?

In our profession we are always going to deal with this kind of scenarios. Personally speaking, the way to overcome such turmoil and frustration is actually doing some soul searching and following some basic business rules.

Do some soul searching? What do I mean by this? Well, I got to a place where I felt I wasn’t really enjoying my job anymore. Wow! This was a hard realization as I do love what I do, AX is my passion and it was getting lost in dark and negative thoughts.

I decided to take what happened to me as an opportunity to grow. Yes, to grow in spirit and AX as well. I started reading some good literature about recognizing who we really are, to then accept other as who they are. Moreover, I also realize that instead of fighting and/or trying to prove someone wrong is a bad thing that will not take us anywhere, and that it is much more productive (and humane) to let-go and try to help.

Also, even though I have work in team environments for many years, I suddenly became aware of the importance of being a good, positive and caring team member. This is a key factor to a successful career and human relationships that I forgot. What how can we help someone that is stubborn and blind? The answer for me is patience and positive actions. If we make the choice to think positively, good things happen around us. For example, it is really easy to criticize someone’s work, but it really hard to help them do a better job. Why? Because helping someone do a better job is a real challenge that only a few can do well. Only the few that really care about the wellbeing of a team can make a positive impression. Personally, I lost that touch in between my latest success and my ego.  I have made the choice to be one those few.

So, I also mentioned that we can also follow some basic business rules. The biggest mistake I’ve made in my life has been to comment on the poor PM’s performance to a customer. Now, this is tricky, what about if the customer mentions that they think your PM sucks, and you agree? Well, this is dangerous as it can get you in a lot of trouble with your employer, PM and customer in the long run. So, always follow the chain of command and never, ever share your personal opinion about someone you work with to a customer.

I’m sorry if this post is not about something technical, or a new AX discovery, but I thought it would be good to share this experience with you as I truly think that a positive and caring attitude can make the difference between a great, clean and successful AX implementation, rather than a poor and unsuccessful one.

As AX Developer/Architects, we have a clear mission, which is to provide the best of us to our customers and help them achieve their vision on time, on budget and drama-free.

Take care!