How Squarespace Changed My Life
What is the correct path?
Like many, I left high-school with the task (read: burden) of deciding, that very minute, what it was that I was going to do for the rest of my life to make some semblance of a living in this tremendously costly city I call home.
What do I want to be when I grow up? In western society, what that really means is:
Which profession will define me a person, and how many expensive and unnecessary things do I want to buy to impress people I don’t like?
Some people intrinsically know the answer to this question from a young age. I’ve always envied those people.
If you’re anything like me, you had no idea what you wanted to do, to pursue, to study — to be.
I’ve always been technically inclined, so I figured a career in computing was the path for me. I steadfastly enrolled myself in computer engineering. I walked into my first day of college bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, then—dropped out—because it was probably the most execrable thing I’ve ever done in my life (aside from telling my parents that I wanted to drop out).
It wasn’t that.
So clearly, computer engineering wasn’t for me. However, I learned a valuable lesson:
An essential part of discovering what you want to do for the rest of your life is finding out what you don’t want to do.
I learned that I’m too creative and scatterbrained to read technical documentation all day.
For the next three years, I studied graphic arts and print media.
As it turns out...
Print media was a very lucrative industry—until just about the year I entered it.
However, being the ardent keener that I am, I did well in school and managed to cobble together an adequate career. A career that I would grow to hate with the intensity of 1,000 suns.
I hate my life.
As I climbed the chain of command in the corporate world, I found myself with more responsibility, more money, more disdain for my Directors and VP’s, more drugs and alcohol to escape from it all, less time to live, and an ever declining will to live.
In desperation—
I started looking for other ways to make money. The only thing on my mind was: how do I get out of this situation!? I have so many financial and social responsibilities now... I think this is what people refer to as "adulting." I can't just quit, although it took every fibre of being, every day, to not rage-quit.
At this point, I have a steady income, great benefits, a pension, a savings account—the American dream.
I also have tears rolling down my face at 6 pm when I’m still at my desk on Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night.
Taking advantage of the circumstance:
When you find yourself in a place where you feel like you have nothing to live for, except spreadsheets and paperwork, your perspective shifts, and suddenly, risky decisions don’t seem so daunting.
I decided to go into business with one of the most beautiful people I’ve ever known: Ms. Jamie Fine; a beautiful soul, a tremendous sense of humour, and a fantastic chef.
With nothing to lose, Jamie and anything to gain, Jamie and I went into business together and opened a boutique catering company—Black Key. We created a beautiful brand and delicious food together.
By virtue of owning a business in 2018, it was necessary to have a website, of course.
I had never built a website in my life. With not a clue where to start, I went in search of an affordable solution to get our new venture online.
I tried a few different platforms, but for whatever reason, Squarespace was the most appealing to me and also the easiest to comprehend relative to other options available at the time. A couple of days later, we had a website.
Squarespace to the rescue!
Everyone was in awe of this website that I had contrived in a matter of hours. It just so happened that my business partner's mother was also in need of a new website for her law practice.
After receiving a plethora of outrageous quotes, she finally acquiesced to the idea of having me build it for her for a much more reasonable fee—a fee which, as it turns out, was outrageously low.
When I finished building her a new website that was approx. 17,000,000% better than her previous website from the ’90s, I sent her an invoice that she insisted that I triple, then proceeded to lecture me about the importance of valuing my time and talent.
Squarespace to the rescue! Again.
When other lawyers in the area caught wind of this guy doing reasonably-priced websites that were bringing in new business, they leaped onto the 21st-century bandwagon and before I knew it, I was a web designer.
But that’s not all! As it turns out, Squarespace is also an incredibly forward-thinking company with the foresight to find people like me who like to build on their platform and provide the tools and resources to do better work.
Yadda, yadda, yadda…
At this point, it’s a little late to try making a long story short, but I will spare you the details of my hundreds of late nights reading forums, blogs and articles in an attempt to maintain the facade of a professional, experienced web designer.
Fake it till you make it, right?
In fact, I did such a good job at faking my expertise that Squarespace actually did an interview with me and featured it in their developer community (Squarespace Circle) member stories.
That little gem of an article brought a ton of traffic to my website. To this day, I often have more work than I can even handle. So, in June of 2019, I quit my steady, cushy, unionized, job. I left behind a life of certainty, routine and misery. I’ve restored my will to live.
In 9 months, I’ve gone from sobbing on the bus in anticipation of the terrible, obnoxious day ahead of me at the office, to travelling the world, doing a job that I love, with amazing people, in beautiful places.
Takeaways:
I am eternally grateful to Squarespace for helping me achieve this dream life.
In my wildest dreams, I never thought I would have my own business, or that I would have seen as much of the world as I have already, met so many interesting people, or have had so many amazing experiences.
If I’ve learned anything, it’s that anything is possible if you want it bad enough and that fortune truly does favour the bold.
If you’re in a bad situation, do something about it.
If you want something, go get it now before it’s too late.
Go live your best life.