Today I was alerted to the fact that MuseArts is twenty years old. In fact it was a day much like today, warm and hazy, when the two of us trudged off to Somerville City Hall (which was way across town) to file our paperwork. It was a gesture of great optimism lightly dusted with insanity, but it was also one of those rare moments of liberation. We were out on our own, setting off into the sea of self-employment, not a care in the world, blue sky as far as the eye could see…
Of course, that wasn’t exactly how it turned out. In fact, at times it was what we would today call challenging. But in the years since we started our own business, we’ve learned no matter what it looks like, you have to keep on. It’s encouraging to note that we’ve successfully ridden the waves of this economy for two whole decades, and only gotten swamped once or twice. Fortunately, we’re good at bailing.
We’ve learned so much in our twenty years as MuseArts that it could not possibly be enumerated. Let’s just say things have changed a lot since the days of table-based HTML and Javascript. And yet, a lot of the same rules apply — create easy to use, engaging, helpful web sites that solve problems for both the owner and the user and you will not go too far wrong. As for the business side, we’ve learned a bit more about our world from each of the many businesses and organizations we do work for.
Would we do it again? You bet. Would we do it differently? Sure, but even then, I’m sure we would have had some hurdles here and there. No matter what you do, there will always be larger forces at work such as wars, terrorist attacks, economic upheaval, and other forms of mayhem that can throw some stunning curveballs. Life, as they say, is what happens while you make other plans.
For our next twenty years, we hope to complete more and better projects, including some we’ve been kicking around for many years and a few more we haven’t come up with yet. We want to stay useful and help people out. And above all, we want to enjoy ourselves in what we do, because without joy, why do it? Surely not for the big salary and executive benefits!
Thanks to all our clients through the years who’ve trusted us to build their web sites and, in some cases, bail them out of woeful situations. We are grateful to you all and look forward to many more years on the wild and wacky world wide web.