A creative professional held roles as a co-editor of a magazine, a curator of group exhibitions, and the head of a graphic design studio, yet frequently left projects feeling lonely and physically drained. A colleague, Michał, urged building a team, triggering fears of sleepless nights and doing others' work. The decision emerged to build a team differently, accepting discomfort and uncertainty. During the first recruitment round, a candidate, Patrycja, demonstrated extreme orderliness in files and naming. Initial insecurity feared exposure of the leader's messiness, but reason highlighted potential for improvement. Patrycja's passionate two-hour presentation left excitement about collaborating.
I asked her to tell me about her favorite project. She shared her screen and for a few seconds, I was staring at a perfect world: a spotless desktop, neatly structured folders, and file names (seriously, not a single new or final_v2 in sight). And in the design files, every layer, every component had a proper name, following a thoughtful naming scheme. At first, I could barely focus on what she was saying. I was so impressed by her orderliness.
My first instinct was a voice full of insecurity: "You can't hire her; she'll expose your messiness. What will she think of you as a leader?" My second instinct was a voice of reason: "With her, you have a chance to get better." And then, for two hours (seriously!), Patrycja spoke passionately about her project, and I silently celebrated the thought of working together.
Collection
[
|
...
]