Maximizing Profit, Passion and Product to Hit Your Business Sweet Spot Zone

David Anderson made a neat post the other day about his personal hedgehog concept that got me thinking about my own personal career targets. First, here is a quick explanation of the hedgehog (and my own lovely rendition of the hedgehog diagram below):

Personal Hedgehog Diagram

Personal Hedgehog Diagram

The personal hedgehog takes into account three key factors:

1. what you’re passionate about,

2. what you can be best at, and

3. what can support you financially.

The target is to find where these all intersect and use that to define your goal or zone or “happy place.”

So the question I must consider ask is: what is my personal hedgehog? Let me try to analyze the three questions.

What am I passionate about? Obviously, from this blog alone, it can be said that I am passionate about software development using agile methodologies, career development for individual software engineers, and leading changes and improvements to the software development life cycle. In a nutshell, I want to lift up the engineers around me and show them how to improve themselves and the IT organization as a whole.

What drives my economic engine? Currently my economic engine consists of working for private firms leading software development projects on business critical systems.

What can I be best in the world at? This is probably the toughest question for me. There are definitely a lot of things I’m good at: software development, project management, team leadership, training and mentoring, documentation (just to name a few). But best in the world? That’s a pretty big set of shoes to fill. If there were something I wanted to be world-renowned for, I suppose I would want to be seen as the premier person for leading and growing other software engineers from the ground up. I want to be the gardener for your engineering seedlings.

So where do these intersect? What is my personal hedgehog?

My own boss asked me a very similar question a few months ago, about what I thought my ideal role would be. The best way I could describe it was to call myself a developer advocate.

In short, I want to be in a position where I can lead other software engineers to greater success. I want to help them implement agile methodologies and improve output. I want to help them identify career goals and elements for personal growth. I want to provide highly technical training for those who need it. I want to turn junior developers into senior developers. I want to instill passion in others so that they take pride in the work they do and have a greater desire to produce quality work instead of “just good enough.” I want to cut away the fat from IT organizations as a whole so that people can actually get quality work done ahead of schedule and under budget.

So have I achieved my personal hedgehog? Not yet, but many of the pieces are falling into place. I think I’ve finally managed to put myself in a position where I could achieve these goals within the next 1 or 2 years. It will certainly be interesting to revisit my personal hedgehog in that timeframe.

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My Own Hedgehog I Live By News

Sep
06

2010-09-06

Sep
05

Cricut My Way: Hedgehog hello card

2010-09-05
This blog is dedicated to help me remember some of the fun things we make, so we can make them again and again. My goal is to make a card from each of my favorite things from each cartridge that I own. Let's see how long it takes me to ...
Sep
04

Sonic The Hedgehog 2 Game Review (Gen/Wii)

2010-09-04
Sonic the hedgehog 2 Game Review! Sonic 2 is Review #57. Sonic 2, marks the first of my Genesis Reviews. Is Sonic 2 worth the Download on Nintendo Wii Virtual.
Sep
04

Sonic the Hedgehog iPhone App Review – AppVee.com

2010-09-04
runs better on my samsung. android of course, but then again i have emulators on mine. negaahmed on August 24, 2010 at 4:35 pm. they will put sonic the hedgehog 4 on the app store. tacoonfire on August 29, 2010 at 1:02 am ... It's much better an more satisfying to own the actual system and physical cartridges. highwaysonyfan87 on August 30, 2010 at 10:40 am. @GTAdministrator yes. i'm with you. I have a genesis and am currently waiting for sonic's 1-3 and sonic and ...
Sep
03

hedgehog & friends: Running

2010-09-03
We are meant to run, and we do so naturally when left to our own devices. Watch a group of children on the playground, in your backyard, or wherever they come together. When they play games like tag, they run for a while, with squeals of obvious delight, ... My Photo. KP See Toh: Singapore: Hello from Singapore! The hedgehog cartoon came about when I saw a hedgehog at Guildford, Surrey, UK in Summer 1998. He was circling round & round in a field for more than an hour. ...
Sep
05

Sonic UNLEASHED Review pt.2

2010-09-05
GYAH HA HA HAAAH!!! This is my In-Game review of Sonic UNLEASHED and presenting the overall functions of the game, the options, controls, etc. And of course, reviewing both Sonic The Hedgehog & Sonic The WereHog on select levels. ... (dang, I'm giving my own review). Anyway, play it, you'll see differences. GeneralLuminescent on November 24, 2008 at 2:14 pm. Let me put it this way, the level designers are the same one who did the awesome Nintendo DS game: “Sonic Rush” and ...
Sep
06

2010-09-06