So, I was trying to fend off an invasion of sewer rats with a can of hair spray and a lighter, and this guy came up to me and asked, “What are you doing?” I told him I was eliminating the rat army that had welled up into a giant Transformers-style beast of destruction.
He said, “No you’re not!”
I said, “Yes, I am–look, see! The rats are right there!” and continued to raze the beast.
Turns out, there weren’t any rats, and I had argued with him for so long that by the time I snapped to, there wasn’t any paint left on his car. A simple
sorry probably wouldn’t have covered it, so I just walked off.
The moral of the story is: you don’t argue (excessively) with your buyer.
Here’s why:
Here’s another anecdote. I was doing some work for a guy working on a coupon site, and while my part had nothing to do with the layout and design of the site, I asked why it looked so bad. He said it was fine. I said it was ugly and pointed out some parts for improvement. Etc, etc, with the result of dislodging my foot from my mouth.
The basic idea was that the website looked bad because ugly website=frugal and frugal sells coupons. So the main point to not question the practices of another area of expertise if you have little to no clue of what’s going on. It wastes time and can annoy a buyer.
What if you see something you agree with that is in your area of expertise? If they’re paying you to do the job a certain way (no matter if it’s bad), then you should do it that way. You can try tactfully suggesting that they try another method, but if you get shut down, just perform the task in the manner they requested. For example, I was writing copy for a website, and I turned in something pretty darn good. However, they didn’t like the professional style and preferred something different. So, since I had learned previously to not argue with the buyer, I did the job as they requested, took their money, and proceeded to buy gold spinny-rims for my sneakers. They look sweet.
It’s the same way in the fiction-writing world. People shut themselves out of opportunities just because they don’t want to write “genre-fiction.” They want to write the next great American literary novel full of symbols and allusions and junk. Most of the people that write that stuff are broke–the money makers are fantasy, horror, and sci-fi. Effectively, it’s commercial fiction. People want it.
The same applies to all disciplines. If you’re an artist, and a customer wants a graphic composed in a way that makes it hideous, then do it that way if it makes them happy. If you don’t, you won’t get paid.
Who is the boss? The buyer is the boss, so make them some ugly code, writing, pictures, or whatever if they want it.
- You Say Tomato
- The Big Question: Is oDesk Economically Viable For Me?
- Success Through Organization
- Improving Employee Morale
- The (Freelancer’s) Gospel According to Tom Petty
I look at it this way:
They’re not paying for the best possible product; they’re paying for the product they want. Give them what they want.
I do well agree that as providers we should be able to deliver what the customers really like to have in the first place.
All of us are different. In fact we are in a global marketplace where one’s concept of beauty can be a lot different to another person of another race.
So it follows that we should be able to provide what the buyers really like - unless they ask for our suggestions and opinions for a given job.