But it isn't easy.
Something that happens when you open your shingle to the world is that, well, the world isn't all great people. You run into folks who traffic in bad faith, deal in all or nothing thinking, behave emotionally, and your reward for all of this is, well, the paycheck. And nothing but the paycheck, because the value you add will feel like a bad exchange later.
During the engagement, you make yourself believe in the client, because not believing in the client is, at least for me, impossible. Once we commit to a job, we're doing the job, but this is all at-will work where the role was available. It's often available for a reason the client won't admit. That's the fun of dealing with people who deal in bad faith.
In the past couple of years, we've had clients who:
> Ranted and raved about colleagues as if they were, well, children (in need of medication)
> Scheduled entire days of meetings, then never showed up on time for any of them, fostering an environment where time waste was endemic
> Forced goals on junior personnel that were ridiculously higher than the historical production rate of past teams as a bad faith exercise in office politics
> Engaged in "I got mine" leadership of more or less washing their hands on controlling the excesses of executives
> Preached values for public consumption that they utterly failed to uphold on a personal level
> Committed the naturalistic fallacy (what is true for me is true for all) as if self-doubt or self-reflection was a virus
> Treated Covid precautions as a sign of weakness and/or mockery
> Assumed the worst of everyone for everything (well, game recognizes game)
> All while claiming that said excesses were made up for by some other virtue (loose hiring, flexible hours, lavish lunches, etc.)
It's sobering.
Discouraging.
And in the long run, always, always, always a plus to get away from.
So what have we learned?
> Bank and save, so you can take on fewer red flag clients
> Practice gratitude, so that you don't turn into the bad client
> Trust your gut. Especially on things like using your own credit card for reimbursed expenses.
> Know that even if the bad client seems to thrive from their bad behavior in the short term, they won't be able to escape who they are. Character is destiny, and time wounds all heels.
> Live well. It's the best revenge.
Forward!
