Solo Vs Team Working
Solo = for or done by one person alone; unaccompanied.
Team = a group of people with a full set of complementary skills required to complete a task, job, or project
Two dictionary extraction and one question- What sounds better, stronger and more reliable to you? It is a solid fact, architecture is team working. And I shall use your attention to briefly explain why you need a team.
The basic and most obvious benefits are a second opinion and a second hand. Now, let go of the narcissism for a moment and realize that there is always someone that can teach you something and there will always be someone who will do one task happier (read better) than you. So instead of putting everything on your shoulders, your life will be so much better (read happier) if you learn to cooperate. You just need to find the right people.
Naturally, at the beginning of your career, you are working for an office and you are surrounded by people that form a team you didn’t choose. There are all these personalities, some of which you maybe have never even encountered before. The quantity of those abnormalities I believe expands when you work abroad by a massive amount.
My advice, embrace it! Get questioned. Don’t get upset when someone tells you s/he doesn’t like your design. Instead, actually, question your design yourself. If you want to be a good architect, take the time to understand the differences. That’s the key. The more ways you find to look at a certain problem, the more refined your solution will be. I believe that the more problems you solve, the better the architect you are. Of a building and of life.
And once you get through with all the questioning, you start to understand just what type of questions excite you, what is it you want to explore more of. This indeed is a solo process. The only one in life you should ever embark upon. Solo decide what team do you want to work for. And just watch how the term for changes into the term with.
Nonetheless, there are still some who believe in a second hand and maybe even in a second opinion, yet are still found to be a solo architect. And there are numerous famous architects, that accomplished great things. They have successfully learned to delegate and are thriving immensely. Now, with all respect to them, let me ask you one thing; when you think of your happiest moments in life – were you alone or was there someone else around you shared the joy with? When you get good news, isn’t it magnified only once shared with someone in your life?
Now imagine winning a competition on your own, or within your team. When is the happiness spread more freely and genuinely? Yes, it’s more difficult to find the right people to create a prosperous team with, to find the right language with those right people, to adjust, to sometimes question, to learn how to phrase a dislike constructively, and fail a bunch of times, to wait patiently somedays and to be rushed others. But if you get it right, it’s so worth it.
You may have to share the praise, but you get to share the ride.
Whether the scale is as big as a society or as small as your team members, remember, you need them. You need them to tell you what you don’t know and you need to teach them back so together you can create something others will then critique online for years, hopefully. Remember, the negative critiques happen just because you didn’t invite that type of person in your design circle in the first place. And if you did, the project would be even better.