So Wordcamp today had a lot of cool. WordPress is cool. Matt is cool. We even talked about cool.

The question was asked to us in one of the session about what makes cool things cool. Why is WordPress cool software and Joomla not? What lessons can you learn from such companies?

WordPress is cool because it works and its easy. If WordPress required you to jump through as many hoops as Joomla, it probably wouldn’t be as cool. The iphone works really well. Zappos shoes are really good shoes or they will replace them or take them back.

WordPress is also cool because it is very focused. You know WordPress. It is a simple yet powerful blogging platform. Apple computers do well what they choose to do. They don’t try to be something for everyone.

James Dean was cool because he was James Dean. He had his personal brand and stuck with it.

Okay, great. So what does that mean for me, who has interests in a wide variety of areas? Can I make a personal brand? Can I be cool?

Even limiting it down to just my company, can I be cool? Answer me this: What is your one thing? What does ever action you take boils down to? If you can’t easily answer that, think of an action you take and answer Why a bunch of times.

Take for example a marketing firm. What is their one thing?

Well we do websites, SEO and article marketing.

Why?

We get our clients to the first page of Google.

Why?

We drive traffic to their site.

Why?

We want to increase their sales.

Why?

We want to make them more money.

Why?

We want to help the business be on better financial grounds.

Why?

We want to increase the happiness of the people in the company.

Why?

We want them to be satisfied with their lives and their business.

Wow. Check it out. I ended up in the same goal as I had on UnWorkaholic. Crazy.

So helping people live satisfying lives is important to me.

But thats not all I am about. There is also this other half of me that loves technology. For example, I’ve had a long standing interest in robotics and techie stuff makes me happy. I spend my free time reading about all sorts of nerdy things, from programming guides to electrical engineering textbooks. And yes, I have been known to do math on Friday evenings.

But nothing about this improves people’s satisfaction with life. In fact, I don’t really do it for any one but me. And yet I feel that that part of me is intrinsic in my personal brand, or it really should be. If I had to pick one this to do for the rest of my life and money was no issue, it would have to be programming. Yes, I am a nerd and I’m proud of it.

But why?

I love the puzzles and the challenge.

Why?

I like being able to come up with the solution to a challenging question.

Why?

I guess I get a bit high from being able to get things to work to my will.

Why?

It makes me hope that I might be able to add something to the world through my creation (even if my current creations are straight out of elec 101)

Why do I want to do that?

Because I want to add value to the world.

So both areas are about adding value to the world through technology.

So maybe my personal theme should be something like:

Making the world a better place one line of code at a time.

Okay, that’s kinda sappy, but I like helping people and I like to code. And those together and I’m pretty happy. 

Nerd girl makes her stand.

What is your one thing?