"I'm making this up as I go along." Sound familiar?
As much as I've been around the block once (okay, twice), there are still many things for me to learn. I need to give myself credit, and say yes, I know a lot. But I don't know it all. That being said, when one of my virtual assistance clients needs me to stretch, I'll do my best to stretch. I'll do it for them, knowing that I'll reap the benefits too. Same goes when I'm called--especially when I'm needed--by a colleague, or friend, or family member. I'll light a fire under my own butt if I need to, but I'll do it for them. In supporting others, I support me. Guess I'm selfish?
My newest client is a wonderful, dynamic woman who always has multiple projects on the go, and who accepts new challenges with confidence and curiosity. I greatly admire her, and in fact anyone who can do that. But seeing as we're partnered now, and regardless of my ignorance of many aspects of her in-flux career, I need to redouble my efforts to support her.
Recently, supporting my new client has meant I've had to venture into the Mac world. Being a career-long PC guy, this has presented some small challenges. But I'm good with them. I'm learning a little bit about Entourage and some other Mac goodies, and it's a healthy thing for me. Also recently, a long-time client re-appeared on the grid with some challenging work by way of connecting 1ShoppingCart, Constant Contact, PayPal and TypePad. A whole lot of little--but technically challenging--pieces had to be sewn together. This particular client and I don't spend a lot of hours together, but nevertheless, I wanted to take some stress off her. She was struggling with the minutia of so many different systems. My knowledge of HTML helped me get her through this piece of work, but not without some 'hard time' spent in online chats and online communities. I admit I wanted to throw the towel in, right in the heat of figuring all this out. But I didn't. I tried to keep my client first and foremost in my mind. Supporting her in this small way felt good, and she appreciated it.
For me, the flip side of supporting others, professionally and personally, has resulted in one unbelievable but wonderful thing: others are there for me too.
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