How badly do you want to work?

Think about it for a moment while I tell you a story. As I’ve mentioned before, I have friends. Some of these friends have shown interest in oDesk. Sounds good, I’ve made money there so there’s no reason my friends can’t too.

Well, the other day one decided to sign up for oDesk, but he ran into a problem. No Yahoo! ID. It just so happens you can’t get past the sign up page without one. No problem, you might think, it’s easy enough to get one. So, do you think my friend went and got a Yahoo! ID?

If you remember the title of the post you can probably figure out the answer: No. My friend did not get a Yahoo! ID and has not signed up for oDesk. It wasn’t an irrational decision, there were plenty of reasons for the choice and I don’t want to go into which ones applied here because that’s not the point.

My friend has the absolute right to refuse to get a Yahoo! ID.

My friend also has the absolute right not to work on oDesk.

You see a Yahoo! ID is a sticking point for oDesk. I don’t know why they require it, and frankly I don’t really care enough to think deeply about it. I already had a Yahoo! ID when I signed up so I just filled in the blank and continued with the application. If I didn’t have one, I would have taken the five minutes to go and get one. I don’t consider it a big deal.

For my friend it was a big deal; big enough to cost oDesk the services of someone I think could be a very good provider.

For those of you who think my friend should have just bit the bullet and gone ahead and created a Yahoo! ID, you’re missing the point.

Any one of you could come across a similar situation at any time.

I’m not saying you could have an issue creating a Yahoo! ID, but each of us has things that we consider important that others may not. The real question is what do you do when a case like this comes up.

When it comes right down to it, you’ve got three basic choices:

1) Stick to your beliefs, turn the job down and move on.

2) Decide that this time you will have to bend, make the concession, do the job and move on.

3) Try to find a way around the requirement, possibly get angry, and generally get hung up on the issue.

Either of the first two is the right answer. The third one isn’t.  No one can tell you what’s important to you and when you should bend or break something you believe in strongly.  The point that’s important to remember is that once you do make that decision there should be no regrets.

Make your decision, accept your decision, and move on.  Don’t get angry, don’t get hung up on the issue.  Life is much to short to worry about things like this.  Sometimes buyers may have requirements that just don’t make any sense to you.

Most of the time such requirements shouldn’t bother you; if they do bother you then it’s a sign that this isn’t the right job for you.  The very worst option is to try to find a way to skip or get around the requirement.   It does nothing but send the wrong messages.

Do you really want to tell the buyer that their requirements aren’t important to you?  You may be able to get the job, but are you sure you want the feedback?

I know I wouldn’t.

The way to succeed on a site like oDesk is by being professional.  You stand by your word and do the work to the best of your ability.  You come in on time and on budget.  You don’t get a reputation for being professional by taking unwarranted shortcuts.  You do get one for saying, “I’m sorry, but I cannot do this for you for this reason.”  Yes you will not get this job, but you may get the next one.

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