When I was in middle school back in the 90s, I set up my first email account. I used Hotmail because it was all the rage and I could instant message with my friends who all had Hotmail. I used this worthless email platform for nearly 10 years. During that time, there didn’t seem to be any major changes to the interface, functionality, design, or layout in Hotmail.
In 2008 I finally saw the light and set up Gmail. It was like a dream. I saw messages come in real time, responses to an email would be attached to the original email like an ongoing conversation, my chat friends we’re all right there in the sidebar with an icon that indicated when they were and were not available, and I could add labels to categorize emails to stay more organized.
All these features are great and there are countless more that I could name, however, the one thing that makes Gmail stand out from every other platform, is that I’m never left at a standstill. What I mean is, everyday I learn something new that I can do to make it a better experience. With something as simple as email, it’s astounding that Google is able to implement so many new features so frequently in an attempt to continue optimizing the user experience. Their list of Labs continues to grow on a daily basis and I frequently find something that after I install, wonder how I ever lived without.
If change is what makes Gmail great, why not us? What if we looked at our job from a “Gmail” perspective? What if our boss was waiting in anticipation each day to see what new idea we would come up with to help his company? What if you could do that with your own company? Then, our costumers/clients would wait in anticipation for what was coming next (in a good way). If this were the case, I have a hard time believing we wouldn’t get more fulfilment in life (and more money if that’s what you’re seeking ;).