Motivation and Development

I have to admit that I have lost some of the spark when it comes to developing applications and systems. Maybe it is the 10 years I have been doing this stuff professionally. I have been programming in one way or another since 1983 when I was 13 starting on a TRS-80 Color Computer. When I was in college I loved being in the computer labs at Michigan State (well I also loved being in the bars also but not as much) and coding on the Suns. It was the early 90's and things like the Internet, web and anything web related was in the birthing stage. Hell I remember when Yahoo had less than a 1000 sites. I worked on one of the first sports web sites. But I enjoyed coding. We had fun in the Computer Science labs at MSU. When I got out of college I was excited to actually earn a living at coding. Then that is all I knew how to do was code. I learned how to develop software through hard lessons learned and from some great developers (through work and books I read). I worked on some great projects over the years. But the last 2-3 years I have lost the desire... let me explain. I love developing software with great teammates. Now I do currently work with great people. I can hang out with them and go to lunch. But I need teammates. It is like professional athletes. All athletes enjoy playing with people that also enjoy getting better and doing their best. They like playing for great coaches and owners. Why are the NY Yankees so successful? It is the same for developers. Most developers I know crave working with great teammates, coaches and owners. That and work culture are the most important things I need from a job. Salary? Can make money doing a lot of things. Benefits? Most jobs have them. But it is hard to find a place that has the people and culture that creates the buzz and electricity to make teams humm like a well tuned engines. Great software only comes (usually) from great teams and companies that get it. We all know what it takes in general to "get it". It is just difficult to do the things that help a venture reach the "get it" point. And that is where I am today. I crave and am searching for a team that I fit into to. I want a place where people click and want to work together instead of people a group of teams of singles. No fun in that culture. I also want to work for a team of management that are leaders and coaches instead of micromanagers. I am no different from a professional athlete (other than the salary) and need to be part of a team. So in the end it comes down to getting over the frustration of not finding the place and now creating the place.