I hate my Tableau Public Profile
…well, it’s a love/hate relationship…
Let me explain.
In October of 2016 I published my first viz and I thought it was so cool. It was cool to share it with others. It was cool to get feedback. It was cool to learn and try new things.
To date I’ve published over 100 vizzes, and each one I’ve learned and grown in my skills, my story telling, and general presentation. I’m really proud of how far I’ve come and I know I have a long way to go, but I hate seeing where I came from. It might be that I hate that other people can see where I came from?
It’s important to leave your profile in tact, to show your growth, but I can’t be the only one who cringes when I look at old vizzes, can I? I was looking for examples to use in a presentation on how to read data vizzes and I went to far back in my profile and I couldn’t believe some of the basic things I missed, mistakes I made and just plain old bad choices.
Am I embarrassed that I was once a beginner? Everyone starts somewhere, right?
As embarrassed as I am that those first vizzes are out there, today was a good day because I came to the following realizations.
The embarrassment is good.
Remembering where you’ve come from is good.
Seeing your own growth is not only good, it’s imperative!
We all have days where we don’t think we are good enough, or we aren’t making progress. We all have days where we question what we are doing, or why we are doing it. Having that Tableau Public Profile is the living reminder of our progress.
Go look the first thing you published… then go look at the latest thing you published. Celebrate where you’ve come from!
Never forget, we all start as beginners, where we end is ours to decide.