Over the past few months there have been several great articles about the amazing projects, mentors, and students over at the Analysis Exchange. This post is not going to be like those. Yes, the project was for a great cause, The Peoples Charter, and the mentor Ridder Manzanet, is fantastic. The student however……. me …… did not do the project, or the Analysis Exchange justice. In short, I failed.
There are many excuses I could list, or hide in the shadows and hope that no one else would find out about this, but I won’t. I knew when I took on this project that I did not have the time right then to work on the project and I should have not signed up for the project, but I did. Thankfully, Ridder, was totally committed to the project stepped in and did all of the work for the client. I sent my apologizes on to the client, my mentor, and even to Eric Peterson. All of which were extremely professional and really speak to the quality of the work and people contributing to the Exchange. It is because of this quality that I wanted to write this post. I truly do feel bad for the position that I put both my mentor and the Analysis Exchange in, but the more I thought about it the more I felt it really echoed what happens on many, many projects out there in the real world.
Things happen, deadlines are missed, and projects fail. That is a fact of life, not just in the confines of the measure community but in all aspects. I can not change the things that have happened in the past, all I can do is to accept responsibility for my inability to contribute on the project and make damn sure that does not happen again. Fail faster is a phrase you hear frequently in the measure community, now having earned that badge :/ it is time to try again. And try again I will. But this time I will be better prepared. I will take more time to evaluate the project before putting my name in. I will make sure I have the time to commit to the project. I will strive to make a positive impact on the project.
If you have already contributed to the Analysis Exchange, thank you for all that you have done. If you have not, don’t be afraid to fail. Try it! If it does not go well, accept it, figure out what went wrong, fix it, and try again.
-Rudi
7 thoughts on “The best laid plans of mice and men”
Very heartfelt, Rudi.
It is in the times of great adversity, when we think we are a failure that we actually learn the most. You didn’t fail anyone, it’s what happened at the time and everyone took something of great value away from the experience.
You are a wonderful ambassador, not only for the Analysis Exchange, but for the Measurement community as a whole.
Solid Rudi. Way to take responsibility and get back up on that horse and ride. The Analysis Exchange is lucky to have you on board.
Props,
John Lovett
Wow, Rudi – could you be a little harder on yourself?
Huge respect to you for your humility and honesty – AND for saying that you’re not giving up on the project. This is bound to happen to others – they may have time at sign-up but not by the time the project is accepted, etc. Such is life. But I doubt all others will be as self-effacing as you.
Kudos,
Exxx
@Jason @John @Emer,
Thank you for your comments. I truly do appreciate them.
-Rudi
For the record, I don’t think the web analytics community can appreciate how much work Rudi puts in for the BeyondWebAnalytics podcast. it is a huge effort (and totally unpaid at that!)! Rudi manages all of the recording, editing, posting to iTunes, managing the website, etc… There would be no podcast without him! There are only so many hours in a week! Thanks Rudi!
Thank you Adam.