16/08/2024
# # # **What doesn’t kill you, lets you survive another day**
Small victory, got my books out for delivery, culmination of months of preparation, and that's just putting the final product together.
So here's a little back story. It all started at the end of 2022, upon receiving a greeting a friend sent to me and another mutual friend. It was a beautiful quote, which I interpreted as words of encouragement and hope. Our mutual friend, tho, related it to his then-situation in life.
That was the aha moment, coz we have very unique life experiences and words form different context according to our own experiences.
That begun the process of gathering all the quotes that I've written down, and some of my own. This was the easy part. The hard part was assigning categories to the collection of quotes.
Once I've decided on the quotes and categories, I started designing the book on Canva coz I don't have any of the fancy publishing software that I used to use. Draft after draft, iteration after iteration.
Late last year, got to see the first sample. Conceptually, it was what I wanted. Design wise, far from ideal. Back to the drawing board. Another couple of months went by and got my 2nd sample. This time round, had used an alt-leather made from pineapple leaves as the cover.
All looking good, except the inside pages were printed in the wrong order, and that the printer was insisting that I changed design for the printed pages. To make matters worse, the material for the cover was stuck in customs due to inept couriers. By now, I was getting so frustrated with how things turned out, so much so, I contemplated on giving up.
Basically, all these took more than a month to resolve. During this period, I relooked at the design, inside and out, and made the changes that resulted in the final product, which I'm actually quite pleased with.
In looking back, I'm glad to be dealt with the issues, as this greatly helped in my de-rusting.
Often times, we have great ideas, know the process of executing it, see the few thinkable roadblocks and visualize the outcome. What's laden on the pathway are unforeseeable problems and challenges.
To succumb is to fail; and to overcome, while it doesn't guarantee success, it's still a win. The lessons learnt won't be forgotten, and the long term application of the lessons will always be invaluable.
So what have I learnt? The 60-20-10 practice is so true.
Had I stuck to the original sample and went to print, it'd have been 60% of what I wanted; workable, useful even, but not lovable. The quotes would still be there but probably only the most fervent writers would accomplish what the concept was meant to be. The extra 20% took so much effort that it could've derailed the entire project. Was it worth it? Yes, coz it shipped. No, had I decided to abandon it. The other 10% above that would be at another time stage.
Now that I have the final product in hand, I realized that this is actually my 60%. As a companion book, it has to be lovable, which is the minimal expectation. More importantly, it has to be a product you can be proud of, yet knowing there's much room for improvement.
This will be my mindset as I continue iterating on Qrospay. And I'd like to say that I've officially de-rusted, now entering the stage of polish, a stage where different levels of finesse need to be applied, coupled with meticulous handling, and intimate care given to the process, if otherwise, may fall back to rust, which is much harder to remove.
