How can a person HONESTLY know if she/he is cut out for web design, or any design for that matter. When is it time to swallow your pride and throw in the town?
This industry has so many sectors to it, if you get fed up with one, why not just pack it in and move to something else you find refreshing. There’s probably close to 100 different web based job roles, each with their own unique and interesting properties. It baffles me to no end when people think that they have got themselves into a rut and have no option but to simply quit the web entirely. Restructuring your business, re-educating yourself and relaunching can bring back all the excitement of a new venture as you had when you first started designing… there’s loads of great opportunities out there. 
PS: I think your name actually reflects the kind of person you are too. I could easily analyse why you chose to call yourself “Another Designer”.
Off Topic:
Linda, I like that film a bit better now… 
AD, your moniker has as much, or as little, meaning as you confer on it. If you truly consider yourself “just another designer,” then that says something. If it’s just a throwaway moniker, then that says something also (including raising a question as to why, of all the possible nicknames, you picked that one).
If I really want to get into dime-store psychoanalysis, I’d speculate as to why you’re letting this conversation go unanswered for over a week…but that would lead me to draw conclusions based on virtually no data, never a good practice.
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I think it’s NeedleNose Ned (now there’s a persistent sales person!) and the fact that while making the movie the little *#!%(@ … er… Ground Hog took a chunk out of Bill Murray. I think people watch to try to see where it happened, but I’m sure that piece of film hit the cutting room floor!
I tend to agree. I’ve always thought that was a quite unfortunate choice for a user name.
Another Designer makes you one of the crowd when what you need to do is stand out brilliantly. Maybe Shakespeare was wrong! There seems to be something in a name and they don’t all smell as sweet.
Maybe the problem is that you’re looking at yourself as simply being just “another” designer… Quit if you don’t see anything else there, or continue if you can find a more personal meaning instead of simply being “another” designer
Ugh, we wouldn’t want to push the metaphor that far.
Off Topic:
Why do people like that movie? You could die from sugar diabetes while watching that film…
Oh I hope that isn’t true. It would be like living in a terminal “Ground Hog Day” state. 
I once read an article on loss of interest in a (workplace) job. It suggested that you step back and try to remember your first day on the job and how excited you were to be there.
Earlier, someone posted a thread about what to do when business is slow and one of the answers I posted was to look at what you did to get your business going and do some of those things again. I think that applies here.
Step back and look at what excited you and pleased you about being a designer. Grab hold of that joy and excitement. If you can’t latch onto those things again, maybe it is time to quit.
I think if you can approach each day as if it were your first day on the job, you’ll be fine. In fact, you’ll really be further ahead than you were at the start because of all the know-how you have accumulated to this point.
There are so many platitudes that come to mind. You know, we all have a limited amount of time. Use today to reflect on where you are now and how far you have come. Then tomorrow, when you wake up ask yourself what exciting and pleasurable thing(s) you can do to make the most of your 24 hours. If you can’t find something in your work that excites you and gives you pleasure, then maybe it’s time to travel a new road.
Good first post, Rarestone.
AD, if I remember correctly, you are an “older” designer (as am I), so I definitely understand your line of questioning. You’re starting to think in terms of finite achievement as opposed to “if I just keep plugging, I’ll eventually rule the world, because my time will never run out”.
Do you enjoy designing? Do you do it for yourself as well as for a job, or do you refuse to open Notepad++ (or whatever) unless you’re going to make $ from it? Do you have an interest in learning new concepts, ideas, tricks of the trade, etc, or do you just whang out the same old design over and over? Do you read the design articles on SP, CSS Tricks, DV, Rutledge’s or Tan’s blog, or whatever, or do you do other things with your time? (I know I’ll never be a full-time Web designer, that’s not who I am, I’m a teacher who designs Web sites, writes, and researches information. I’m good with that. But I went through something of the same process you seem to be engaged in now.)
I read somewhere that a single day of your life is, in some senses, a microcosm of your entire life. Examine the portion of your day spent designing / coding / working with clients / learning about design / whatever. Is it satisfying, or does it give you the same rush of creative joy as you’d get by dipping McNuggets in the fry vat?
Nothing wrong with you spitballing questions in the forums, often those “spitballs” create the best conversations, but this is a question ultimately only you can answer.
If Another Designer can’t give a reason why he shouldn’t quit, then maybe it’s time !!
What part of the job attracted you in the first place?
I find that I love doing all aspects of my job, but not all at once. So I might go for awhile working with another designer while I do the client work and doing the coding, or I might switch it up for the next project and do all the design work and hire someone to make it live. Since I never have time to do it all myself and I get bored easily it works for me.
Although I will mention that I never would get someone to do my sales or networking for me. I find that can be entirely too much fun
If you find it that it didn’t give you the chill to work on web design anymore. Better change your interest.
I find Friday at 3pm is a good time to call it quits but I start work early in the morning so your situation may be different.
I think you’ll know it automatically. By the way, throw in the town?
Since you’re thinking out loud and you are the only person who can decide what is right for you, why not reverse the question.
Why SHOULD you stick with web design instead calling it quits? You don’t make posts about how much you like, in fact it’s the reverse. Why do you do it?
That’s a very perceptive observation. I do think out loud in may of my posts.
You can still do what you love but have the love for it be slowly destroyed due to bad circumstances. You’re only not doing what you want to do if you think “I want to paint cats, not this web design stuff”. Personally I’ve had one company almost destory my love for web development only quit to go some where else and have it all come back. This is why some people seem to back track. But don’t let anyone of us tell you what you only know, you hold the answers to every question related to yourself.
- Are you happy?
- Are your clients happy?
- When you look at the future of your company do you see roses or doom and gloom?
- Is the business killing your own personal savings with no profit in sight?
Those are just a few questions to ask yourself. Do you care to share anymore about why you’re feeling like it’s time to throw in the towel?
You said ‘HONEST’, but it seems like you were just thinking out loud as many of your posts do.
But if we are being honest, how would you answer the question?
Do you wake up and think:
a) I have loads to do and the day’s not long enough - lets go!
b) yay, work!
c) aw crap
You know what you’re doing, you like what you’re doing and there’s a future in what you’re doing. If you’re making enough money to keep yourself afloat and you have fun along the way… you’re cut out for it. If you’re constantly questioning yourself, beating yourself up, moaning about clients and spending your time running around like a headless chicken (without direction)… either work for someone else (thereby giving you the direction and structure) or find another job.