When you leave a big company, you have a unique opportunity to send one more message before they shut down your email account. Some folks had some kind words to say about my final email and asked if I would post it.
Dear Friends,
It has been an utter pleasure to work with you since I got here. The opportunities afforded me here at a Adobe have been the source of some of the most interesting and exciting projects I’ve worked on.
As I pack up my desk and get ready to start writing the first of the Tinkering School books, fleeting panics ebb and flow as I come to grips with all the nascent projects that I have discussed with people – all those good ideas that I won’t get to participate in building… I look forward to seeing where things at Adobe go from here.
So, I leave you with four good ideas:
#1 – Play!
The more we take ourselves seriously, the less good our work becomes. There is no better place to try a risky idea, than here, nestled in the arms of a really good, solid company. If your next proposal doesn’t shock 15% of the people you present it to, then it’s not crazy enough.
#2 – Defer Judgment!
I first saw this on the wall at IDEO, but it’s the best advice anyone ever committed to signage in a corporate setting. It’s too easy to take pot-shots at newborn ideas. If someone is describing something to you that you just aren’t getting, say “Keep working on that” instead of saying nothing and going back to your desk to tell your friends how dumb it was. Really good ideas are sometimes buried in crap and may need help getting cleaned up.
#3 – Instead of Having a Career Path, Always Do the Most Interesting Thing You Can.
A career-path will only get you to retirement. Follow your interests obsessively, sacrifice everything, and keep doing it. Eventually it will turn into something both amazing and surprising. Along the way you will do things that you never thought you would, find yourself in places that you never imagined you would go, and in the end you will look back and say “Wow! What a fun ride that was! Can I go again?”
I guess #4 should be “don’t put advice in your goodbye mail, it will get too long and no one will read it“.
Now some contact information:
You can keep an eye on me here: http://www.twitter.com/gever
Or check out the school blog: http://www.tinkeringschool.com/blog/
Or my infrequently updated personal blog: https://gevertulley.wordpress.com/
Or get them all in one place: http://www.friendfeed.com/gever
As ever,
-gever
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