In his book " the 7th Century BC poet.
Each day the fox aims to catch the hedgehog but is defeated. Whilst the fox is adept and possesses many skills it cannot win. Why? because the hedgehog rolls up to protect itself and the fox is jabbed by the spines.
In his famous essay “The Hedgehog and the Fox,” the philosopher Isaiah Berlin divided the world into hedgehogs and foxes, based upon the ancient Greek parable.
Hedgehogs' lives are the embodiment of a single, central vision of reality according to which they "feel", breathe, experience and think - in short, "system addicts".
Foxes live centrifugal lives, pursuing many divergent ends and, generally, possess a sense of reality that prevents them from formulating a definite grand system of "everything".
The Hedgehog Concept is a simple concept that flows from understanding the intersection of the following three circles:
- What you can be the worlds best at.
- What drives your economic engine.
- What you are deeply passionate about.
To have a fully developed Hedgehog Concept, you need all three circles.
If you make a lot of money doing things at which you could never be the best, you’ll only build a successful company, not a great one.
If you become the best at something, you’ll never remain on top if you don't have an intrinsic passion for what you are doing.
Finally, if you are passionate, but if you can’t be the best at it or it doesn’t make economic sense, then you might have a lot of fun, but you won’t produce great results.
What has this got to do with website design?
At Wish Design I have chosen to build websites using the Joomla framework - this is my "one big thing". Like most people I combine characteristics of a fox and a hedgehog but in focusing on Joomla as my one big thing I have chosen to develop designs which can be built in a modular style.
Joomla is a foundation to build sites upon. It is the footing which other modules can be added to. If you need a website why not build a website which can be easily adapted, not just by allowing the client to change the content themselves, but by allowing for future unknown needs to be catered for at the beginning of the design process.
If I build a site, why not build a site on which an ecommerce component can be added to if the need later arises, or a forum, or classified section, or flash component or even a full community portal? Why not strive to make Wish Design websites the best?
