Watch this 3 minute video of Steve Jobs roasting consultants.
He's right...
In 2 weeks, I will have hit my 3 year mark as a consultant. When I first joined, I was ecstatic to get to work with large brands who were serious about investing in product design and development. I never thought I would be "in the room" with such leaders and decision makers so early in my professional career.
Consulting is great on the surface. You get a broad experience of projects with big name companies, but you miss out on the learnings of the work that was done because you're already onto the next client project with a whole new mission.
This is where Mr. Jobs' thoughts on consulting struck a chord with me. In summary, Steve argues that learning is only done when you "own something over an extended period of time, where [you have] to take responsibility for [your] recommendations through all action stages and accumulate scar tissue for the mistakes."
In consulting, the measure of success is based on whether you shipped the product. Did you "finish" the scope of work? In the real world, success is measured by whether or not you solved the problem.
Not owning and experiencing the results of your recommendations is counterintuitive to the process of learning and getting better at your craft. It's a lost opportunity.
Now, I think back to my experience starting TimeStamp. It was my first experience building a product from scratch. I was naive. I was dumb. I made mistakes. But that's exactly why it was the most imapctful work I've ever done. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything. I cherish that scar tissue. All my experience from consulting combined does not surpass the learnings I experienced from TimeStamp.
I think it's time for a change...