I’m not a Flash designer, but Jonathan Har­ris’ inspir­ing and rous­ing speech from Flash on the Beach 2008 really got me think­ing about the longevity of my work.

It appears that some atten­dees of the con­fer­ence felt Har­ris was admon­ish­ing the Flash com­mu­nity. How­ever, after read­ing this speech I feel inspired and I can’t help but think this was the intention.

You will become known for doing what you do. This may sound obvi­ous, but it is a use­ful thing to real­ize. Many peo­ple seem to think they must endure a “rite of pas­sage” which, once passed, will allow them to do the kind of work they want to do. Then they end up dis­ap­pointed that this day never comes. Find a way to do the work you want to do, even if it means work­ing nights and week­ends. Once you’ve done a hand­ful of excel­lent things in a given way, you will become known as the per­son who does excel­lent things in that given way. And that’s the per­son you want to be, because then peo­ple will hire you to be that person.