Building a website from scratch felt like stepping into unfamiliar territory. Still, I wanted a space that reflected my own vision a home for my articles, designed exactly the way I imagined. After ten years away from blogging, and facing WordPress’s dramatic evolution, the idea seemed almost unreasonable. But the desire remained, and with it, a stubborn determination to try.
This is the story of my journey today – a journey filled with challenges and moments of doubt, yet underpinned by a relentless determination not to give up.
Was Building a Website on My Own Even Reasonable?
I imagined a very specific look and flow for my site, yet no existing theme could match it. My search for a flexible tool finally led me to Elementor Pro. It was heralded as an intuitive and a relatively simple solution. My early experiences with it were anything but.
Layouts collapsed.
Widgets refused to behave.
Entire sections disappeared without warning.
Each attempt brought a new form of frustration. It was daunting. And more than once I questioned whether building a website from scratch was simply beyond me.
In these moments of struggle, two well-known quotes surfaced and shifted something in me.
Trying One More Time – Edison’s Instruction
Thomas Edison famously said, “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”
I had read those words many times, but this time they felt personal.
Edison’s countless experiments to bring a light bulb to life, reminded me that creation is rarely neat or linear. If he could persist through repeated failure on his way to invention, then perhaps I could face another broken layout.
With that in mind, each reset became less of a defeat and more of an experiment – a tiny apprenticeship in patience.
Redefining Failure — Einstein’s Reminder
Another quote, often attributed to Einstein, says: “You never fail until you stop trying.” Whether or not he said it, the meaning softened my frustration.
It reframed failure not as a final verdict, but as a step in the learning process.
A misaligned column taught me something.
A broken section revealed what I had misunderstood.
Every obstacle, instead of discouraging me, became a lesson in disguise.
Slowly, the interface became less intimidating. The strange language of blocks and containers began to make sense. My hesitation gave way to curiosity, and what once felt overwhelming became an unfolding puzzle I could learn to solve.
Small Victories That Kept Me Going
As days turned into weeks, progress appeared in small moments:
- positioning an element exactly where I wanted it
- discovering the perfect color combination
- successfully integrating a widget
- understanding why something broke – and fixing it
These tiny achievements accumulated into something larger: confidence. And confidence, even in small amounts, has its own momentum.
What Journey Through Building a Website Taught Me
Looking back, I see that persevering through the learning curve of web design became its own quiet teacher.
Perseverance isn’t about force. It’s about staying open, experimenting, and trusting that clarity grows with practice.
Along the way, I discovered that:
- beginnings don’t require mastery,
- progress doesn’t require perfection,
- and setbacks don’t define the outcome.
Today, when I look at my completed website, I see more than a finished layout.
I see the patience behind it – the decision, again and again, to “try just one more time.”
And that simple choice made all the difference. It reminded me that in our pursuit of creation, challenges serve not as deterrents, but as invitations to grow, to learn, and ultimately, to succeed.
P.S. If you’d like a lighter, more humorous take on this same unpredictable journey, you may enjoy Wild WordPress Elementor Pro Wilderness – another chapter in the Website Chaos Chronicles.
