Brief Hiatus

Just writing to say that you may have noticed I’ve not posted lately, nor used my Twitter. Quite a few people have asked where I am so I wanted to give a quick update. I’ve managed to get ill with a kidney infection (among other things – potentially glandular fever/mono) that has near incapacitated me.

Long story short; it’s meant my kidneys go through immense pain sometimes and my immune system is working overtime to combat it, which means I’ve caught everything that I come in contact with (colds, etc) and means that I am incredibly fatigued.

It’s been a never ending circle of Dr’s and blood tests. (And soon an ultrasound.) On a side note; today I found out my Phlebotomist is also a piercer. Not shocked at all as she was so quick.

This means I will be withdrawing from this years Startup Workaway also. I had to do the same last time and I feel incredibly bad for letting everyone down but I hope to be back in work as soon as possible and I would not feel it was right to take time off shortly after being back after being sick for so long, nor do I think it would be healthy for me with a much lowered immune system to be in a country like Thailand. I was looking incredibly forward to it so it’s a shame.

I wanted to thank everyone for their kind wishes so far also. I will be back and kicking ass as soon as I can. Right now I’m focusing on getting well enough to get back to work.

A Brutally Honest Year In Review

The best friend & I

Canada

In February, my best friend and I work-holidayed to Quebec to see our good friends Nick Plante (zapnap), his wife Amanda and Nick Tomarello. It was the first time I’ve visited Canada but definitely not the last. We managed to book the time perfectly for the Winter Carnival where we saw such things as the ice hotel and went sledding.

The idea was that we would go out and visit the awesome sites during the day, and work on a project during the night. It worked very well and sparked us to create Startup Workaway (I’ll be at the next one!) The basic premise is to take geeks out their comfort zone, put them with like minded people and watch what they create.

Best Friends & Businesses

Unfortunately, it wasn’t all good. The middle crumbled for me. During the middle of the year I lost my other best friend tragically, shortly followed by a romance becoming seriously ill with cancer, breaking down and going AWOL. It seriously broke me. Two people that I had spent years talking to every night without fail were suddenly out of my life. I tried to remain as professional and normal as possible for my business’ sake.

At the time I was running London Made and we had just grounded ourselves by taking on some free work that ended up being more than we could chew. It was a huge lesson and the first time in a very long time that made us a big loss. I personally ended up in debt over it and we had to fire our rather unsympathetic client. It made me realise I should have done it sooner. We were being taken advantage of and it was my want of exposure that kept us on it. The sacred promise of riches. The project was then handed to another agency and it is still yet to have seen the light of day.

Running a business is incredibly hard work. There are both extreme ups and downs of equal measures – much like normal life. I’ve run a company in multiple countries, multiple people. At the top of my game I had a maximum of 15 people employed/contracting with us. And I just mentioned one of the many bottoms. Without failure, there is no success and I am proud of my mistakes. They could have been a lot worse.

We still have one last client to release soon. I can’t wait. They’re adding a few new features and going through a Private Beta. It’s work we’re really proud of so I can’t wait to talk about it when it’s ready.

Being entrepreneurial is incredibly important to me. I’m a day dreamer, I spend my days in the clouds. Dreaming of what businesses I could run (and also if I was a super hero, how different my day would be.) I dream of winning the lottery but not spending it on my retirement but instead on businesses.

Mark Boulton Design

Work was great. I was wanting to move to a different city and expand London Made, maybe find a partner in the process. Everything was great. Out of nowhere I got asked if I would consider moving to Cardiff for Mark Boulton Design. I had met Mark many years previously and had much admiration for his work to benefit the industry.

I said Yes without hesitation and went for an interview. Though it was a big decision, I was very sure of it. I had no interest in moving to Wales, I wasn’t sure if I could work for someone else after spending so much of my life not doing so. However, my Lead Developer had got a good job offer, my contractors were all busy and I knew that I’d benefit greatly from having Mark’s mentorship.

Within the company I found my footing leading the UX on an awesome client. It’s been months of really hard work but I couldn’t be more excited for when it finally releases. My time at MBD so far has been a hell of a ride. (I also learnt the hard way – keep yourself hydrated or get knocked out for weeks.)

More Health

Since I arrived in Cardiff I got complacent with my diet and gained weight. I’ve been working hard on changing that. I’ve started swimming before work (I kept it up for 1-2 hours every day for 2 weeks — although that’ll stop when my hours change next month unfortunately) but I’ll try to keep it up somehow.

Cardiff

Moving to Cardiff was an amazing decision. I’ve lived in a few countries in a few continents but none has ever felt like home like here does. I’m definitely going to be settling here for a while.

Side Projects

I still try to keep up the side projects. I’ve got a ton of side projects I want to do but so little time to do them. I am however keeping up to date with Crummy.

I’m not going to pay for the renewal of designblogs‘s domain (previously of designablo.gs) as it’s costing me too much (I already pay for hosting.) However, I will give it a proper design and work on more.

Best posts of 2011

Be Yourself. Everyone else is taken.

@media 2005. Credit goes to Cindy Li for this photo. (I was 19 – Earliest I could find)

This is a fact that took me far too long to learn. I started in this industry young. There were already people designing and programming far smarter than I and I always felt the need to project a bigger age, to show anything but myself.

In truthiness, doing the hustle is not a bad thing but there are two things that sell the most: Talent, and Personality. Without one, the other accounts for nothing. No one wants to work with a boring guy, just as much as no one wants to work with someone who will do a bad job.

I learnt that the hard way. I grew a beard as soon as I physically could (not as young as one would hope) coupled with the fact my personality always naturally appeared older. I was well on my way to projecting the persona I wanted to, which didn’t work as well.

Although this is partly just the fact that I lived on the web while growing up, I’ve learnt not to hold back. I try to show myself; faults and all. I swear (see this), I make mistakes, I say when I think something’s wrong. It’s a liberating experience It’s what I should have done all along.

If you look at the most notable designers or developers, it’s often not their skills that have got them there. In fact I’d say most of the notables are pretty average. It’s their personality. It’s the fact they’ve given large quantities of who they are to the web world and they’ve given a window into their persona.

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” — Oscar Wilde

I’ve Got Myself Employed, the Future of London Made & This Blog!

As of a few months ago I was in the planning stage of how to expand London Made. Over the years we have been getting far more work than we could take on and I felt it was time to expand. Interestingly enough, it was a job offer that changed that.

I’m not one to be in employed. In my 13 years of working on the web I have only spent 8 months in employment at Hashrocket. However, when I was approached about the oppurtunity of working with Mark Boulton Design I had an initial gut reaction that it was something that I would love to do.

I have learnt a lot from reading Mark’s blog over the years and already had been following some of the team on Twitter. Their knowledge and passion very much spurred me into thinking that it would be an awesome place to work. Exciting projects, passionate people and great knowledge. I am very stoked.

However, London Made as a consultancy will obviously be closing down as it becomes the umbrella for my startups and mobile apps. I would not say I was not a little sad, but it definitely is a choice that I have no regret.

Because of having work hours, I now aim to be able to update this blog far more too. I also have plans for speaking among other things.

I move to Cardiff on Saturday and start work on Monday. It’s exciting and I can’t wait to start.

If you want to work with me, I’ll still be available, along with a great team. Just go to Mark Boulton Design’s Contact Page and fill it out.

New Personal Blog

I just started a new blog for the personal posts I just do not want to post here. Things like Recipes, Video Game Tips and Opinions.

If you are interested, head over to zachinglis.me and Subscribe now!

The beard… It’s gone.

(Animated GIF)

After 15 months of growth, I have shaved my beard off. I already miss it and it’s coming back ASAP. I really did it for my mother for her birthday as she hates it, and it made her incredibly happy so that makes it a bit better.

If the animation isn’t working, click here for a panorama.

Me. A bit of a life story.

My life has not always been easy but I think I can appreciate that now. I watched a lot of beautiful business and it helped shape who I became. I was born May 9th 1986 in London and am the third out of four children. Like all my brothers I was born premature which was probably an explanation in why I was born with multiple life altering diseases. Among a few of note was dyslexia, motor apraxia and colour-blindness. While these problems do not hinder me in my adult life and no one thinks I was born any different, it took many years of extra circular activities such as physiotherapy to get to that place.

As a weird but eventually wonderful result, it changed my life for the better. School ran at a different pace than I did and did not hold my interest for long (I was predicted all A-Stars but only walked away with 2 GCSEs.) I soon switched off and started in my own direction. At age 12, I picked up a Macromedia Flash 3 demo disk. After searching the internet for help and tutorials, I soon became adept at it. Firstly making crude animations and then quickly learning it for commercial usage. It was the age of bulletin boards and I found a web design community called Pixel Junction. I met my then soon-to-be business partner David Hope. We ran a company called Reality Art Studios for a total of 6 years before we decided that we both started to want different things and wanted to grow in a different environment.

Around 2002, while I was learning PHP, my travels I met my then future partners and close friends Bryan Veloso and Faruk Ateş. Two people who my respect for has only grown. In 2005, we briefly started a company called LT3media with Cindy Li, Hayo Bethlehem and Victoria Rendell. It was not to be, all 6 of us trying to fit our schedules together did not work and we parted ways.

Fast forward to 2005 and I leave for Asia to be with a girl (who eventually became my fiancée, then my ex.) A while later she tells me that she has to move to America, and so I tell her I will follow her. I do and spend 2 years in Galesburg, Illinois. At that point Obie offered a job at Hashrocket where I spend 90% of that time leading a vital project. I got to enjoy far too much Patron and hot tubbing with great friends and watch the company grow. 7 months later I decide that I need to be my own boss again.

Now, I have started London Made with the incredibly talented Jonathan Conway.

Since an early age I watched my father while he worked in the movie industry. He is a fountain of fun stories that include hanging out with Rod Stewart in hotel rooms, his help in creating the original Clash Of The Titans and so on. He also was one of the chartered accountants that worked on the Rolls Royce receivership and ran a successful pub for many years. My mother was much the same and is an MBA who used work as a Stock Trader, etc. I think it gave my parents equal parts joy and frustration that I was the only one of their 4 children to become an entrepreneur.

I do want to be a millionaire, but not so that I can pack up my job and retire, so that I can build more businesses, help other people with their dreams and build some charities. That has always been my dream.

I really enjoy helping people with their dreams and passion and am a true believer of the pay it forward concept. I spend about 35% of my day helping people; be it life or work. Truthfully, I am more than happy to do it. If I help one person and it changes their life for the better, chances are they will help at least one person and so on.

Few facts:

According to Working With Rails, I have worked with Rails for 5 years and 8 months.
I have designed for a total of 12 years.
I would rather do it right and the best I can, than be rich and do it half-heartedly.
My favourite books include The Hitman Diaries, Memoirs of A Geisha, Enter The Dragon, Freakanomics, Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive.

My Journey And The State Of The Web Industry

While I would like to say “I am back”, I never truly was here. I projected images and did not truly project my soul into my blog.

I started commercially working in the web industry over 12 years ago. I attended my first conference only 5 years ago. While people were very nice and accepting, I quickly felt that my age held me back. It did somewhat, I was maturing¹ and I had not learnt many of the fundamental life lessons. It did not help me.

I started a blog but I never put my personality behind it. I used it as a tool to project an older image and to generate leads and ultimately I felt that I did myself a great disservice. I did not blog for myself nor did I use my greatest selling point, myself. Although, this blog is not to sell; there is a handy link at the top if you wish for my services but I will not push them.

I grew to have a lot of frustration for the web design community and the ‘web celebrities’, with the huge egos and more importantly with the “Preach first, practice later” mindset. The truth of the matter is; no matter how much I felt like that, I should have just tried to separate myself from that.

The web celebrity culture is a flip sided coin. It does good in the fact that it gives incentives for people to blog but it also intimidates a lot of both new and experienced talent. I have spoken to no less than 8 people in the last 12 months who were considering getting into web design, but were strongly considering not to because of it.

I also believe that due to this culture, the more popular get more popular and the rest of the industry blog ecosystem becomes more stagnant.

When I started my old personal blog, it had thousands of followers with only a year. The reason behind this was because I bared my soul to it, I gave a real piece of me to it. That’s what I aim to do with this blog.

I’ve been considering starting again for months and on Saturday I decided that I would stop thinking about it and just do. So I quickly made a design and implemented it (excuse the fact it is rough around the edges) . So I am back, or I am starting, or whatever. This is my proper go at a blog. Thank you for reading and I hope you stick around. While I am trying to start fresh, I will try to find some of my best still-relevant posts from the past and repost them.

though when do we stop? [↩]