The other day I was using Adobe Illustrator to design a logo.  Normally, I pass on this work to one of my go-to graphic designers (always a good call) but this was a special project and I had a strong idea of what I wanted. 

I’m not a bad designer, but I’m a slow one.  Seriously, I’d make about $1/hour if I did graphic design myself.   You have to know what you’re good at, right?  I can whip out a press release or a case study in no time, but design – nope, I belabor every permutation.

As I was working on the logo, my 5th grade daughter sat down next to me and asked if she could play with the logo.  Sure! So I handed over the computer and watched as she randomly just hit buttons investigating what every little thing did.  In no time, she had found all these cool new features that I didn’t know even existed.  Here’s the logo she created:

(Don’t you love the tagline?!)

OK, so her logo is a little busy, but I love how she just jumped in and looked around.  I would never do that!

I wondered. When did I become so careful?  Why do I look in the help files before just messing around with the program?  But I think it’s just my nature.  Whenever I get a new gadget, I’ll sit down with the manual and read it cover-to-cover. 

I hate doing things wrong, but sometimes there is no wrong. There’s no consequence. The best thing is to just dive in.  

I think the lesson here is to watch and learn from others who are different than you.  Look what I learned from an 11-year-old.  Amazing!