Some time since the last post. I have been a little busy the last two weeks but today I’m back 🙂 In today’s post I would like to share my personal conclusion about Synthesize, the first iOS dev meeting in Málaga, Spain, where I was invited to do a little talk. As you may expect if you follow this blog, this is not going to be a regular report of the event. I’m going to share with you my thoughts about how the event affected me.

But first, let me explain a little bit about the event. The meeting was celebrated in Málaga, a beautiful city at south of Spain. Nice place to go for a few days 😉 The event was organized by Cero Ideas, a company specialized on iOS and Mac development.

The meeting was structured in 25 minutes speeches and the topics were freely chosen by each speaker. So there were a lot of different talks and points of view at Synthesize. That was really interesting.

In general the event was great. Well organized and the food at the breaks was delicious! The atmosphere was absolutely fantastic. Very young people with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. Was good to be there and to feel such an energy 🙂

And about the interest of the speeches I was satisfied in general. There were some epic speeches and some that I preferred to follow by twitter with the rest of the audience… I would like to highlight the speech from Luis Medel about PhoneGap. Absolutely epic speech. Well structured, high quality content, perfect timing and some jokes about Windows Mobile 😀 I was also impressed by Pere Roca, a talented illustrator from Barcelona. Nice presentation and nice work.

Toni Sala at Synthesize Málaga

Ok, that’s my summary about the event. Now my personal and for personal use conclusions. During the last, let’s say, 8 or 9 months I have been following and reading a lot of blogs from indie devs. I have read a lot of things about life style, motivations, work, results, expectations, thoughts, philosophy, code, art… everything. But there is an issue that every now and then appears in different blogs from different indie devs: the difference and importance of being an entrepreneur or a craftsman.

I didn’t understand anything about this kind of articles. Why comparing entrepreneurs and craftsmen in the context of indie iOS dev? What’s the point on doing that? Why it seems that the indie community believes that it is very important to understand the difference, an even to determine what kind of person are you? How could I answer these questions if I even not understand why they should be formulated?!

Ok, after about 8 months of uncertainty, last Saturday, on Synthesize, I finally saw the answer: I am a craftsman. The Synthesize event was full of entrepreneurs and also full of craftsman. The speakers were balanced in terms of this two types of person. So, I saw clearly the difference between one group and the other.

Entrepreneurs tend to be people that speak louder and faster. They have a lot of different things to explain and they need to explain they all. They see the world as the result of the addition of different parts. And they know how to deal with every part to get benefit of the whole system. Their mind tends to grow outside and clearly, objectively measurable success is very important for them. The world is a place full of opportunities for them.

Craftsmen tend to be people that speak quietly and slowly. They usually have a few things to explain but they think they are very important, so they try to explain them in different ways and from different perspectives. They see the world as a whole and are not aware about they are already getting benefit of it. Their mind tends to grow inside and success is a matter of feeling for them. The world is a place full of people for them.

This is my view of entrepreneurs and craftsmen based on my whole life experience but specially from the great experience of being at Synthesize. If you read between lines, you will see that entrepreneurs and craftsmen are not mutually exclusive. They overlap in some sense. Furthermore, I believe that one person can act as an entrepreneur or as a craftsman in different moments or phases of his life. It is not a status, is a mental state.

Mental note: are you entrepreneur or craftsman? Don’t know? Don’t worry. Knowing the answer of that question is not important. The only important thing is that you believe on what you do.

So, at this moment I’m convinced that I’m clearly a craftsman. And I am really proud of it. I liked the people on the Synthesize that I classified as craftsmen and I hope that I am like them. I also liked the people I classified as entrepreneurs but simply I’m not that way. Is an issue of everyone’s nature. You can’t choose. You are an entrepreneur or a craftsman. So, finally, the conclusion is that the question is not so important. You can’t choose, so be yourself and believe on what you do.

So, what do you think? Are you an entrepreneur or a craftsman? Or maybe there is no point on doing this question? 😉