what was your biggest non-monetary success this year? i asked this question on twitter, LinkedIn and facebook, and here are some responses: in fact, i got so many, i have to turn this into two posts.
i’ll start with raul who said: mental health camp, hands down. the reason i’m starting with this is selfish – it was my biggest success, too – not only the camp itself but also working so fabulously together with raul. 2010 watch out, we’re going to do it again!
who else?
baljit siekham: i wrote a letter to god in march. i asked him for help. i have been getting help from all sorts of unexpected places and people ever since. all i can say is – thank you
isabel: saying yes
karen: learning to become a manager
anne baird: my biggest non-monetary success in 2009 was in the creation and launch of my new ecard website, www.egoddesscards.com. this involved a huge learning curve in learning how to adapt my regular greeting card inventory to a virtual ecard inventory, complete with applets and music, that i learned how to download and edit. all in all, it was a very challenging and satisfying project, which has blown the doors off my old goddess cards company. no longer shackled by printing expenses, storage of inventory, and maintaining and shipping of orders of real cards (though i continue to do that with my existing inventory), i am free to create an ever greater and wider variety of cards for the goddess community (all women!), and to respond to their needs and requests. now, all that i need to do in 2010 is to make this a monetary success! monetary success is simply a means of measuring response to my work, and to my messages of love and affirmation to women, and to those that they love. i am constantly learning ~ both from this new format, and from the women to whom i speak. i am so excited about 2010! i send my love to everyone out there…anne
al pasternak: providing foster care to chloe the dog. still learning lots.
paul w. gallant: becoming part of the person centered health PCH leadership action series. helping to stimulate change and improve the momentum of PCH along with others who are part of this north american group. voluntary and includes people from east to west canada and US.
david drucker : for me, the biggest non-monetary success was helping to organize and run uxcampvancouver, the first barcamp-style ‘unconference’ in the area for user experience professionals and enthusiasts. while i’ve attended many local events, it was particularly gratifying to see a whole day of stimulating presentations and lively discussion on december 6th, from a local community that i knew existed, but hadn’t up till now had an event dedicated to them. i’ve also been on teams for events like this (like a couple of years of barcamp), but this was the first time it was just 2 of us, and fortunately, karen parker was an excellent leader, and i learned a lot from her.
like most successful events in this town, i believe uxcamp will be an annual one. it feels great to be another contributor to the local calendar. because of this, i feel as if i’m now, truly, a member of the vancouver professional community.
while you’re waiting for the second instalment tomorrow, why not tell us what YOUR biggest nonmonetary success was?