It’s a Celebration of Mediocrity — and We’re All Invited!
Does anyone else get completely pissed at the lack of passion, time and quality that seems to go into creating many of our popular products and companies these days?
Can we, as the world’s newest group of entrepreneurs, break the maddening cycle of prefabricated pop-bands and tasteless diet margarine?
Doesn’t it seem that our peers are STARVING for high quality everything? Doesn’t it seem as though they should want more than what is fed to them through their satellite dish? Who wouldn’t want to make life easier, or brighter and smarter using one of OUR products, right?
It seems so black and white to me sometimes. I have a talent and a service that I am offering to people who claim to NEED me. They hire me with a smile on their face. They are glad that I came into their lives, and cannot wait to start improving (whatever it may be).
But too often, they opt not to use my services to the fullest extent for reasons of time or money. Or sometimes I’m told that it may not be necessary for us (meaning me) to go that far.
For example: I was hired to do website copy for a rather large company with a big audience. I was totally stoked because the work would look awesome in my portfolio. I was given a few simple assignments which included proofreading and editing their current copy (which was loaded with typos).
I sent my changes to the client – who told me that we didn’t need to worry about some of the typos. We only needed to worry about the sections of the site that were going to be viewed by potential sponsors. And he did not post my changes.
I had already done the work, and was not charging by the hour – however the client decided it wasn’t necessary to make his ENTIRE website grammatically correct.
I then recalled several promises I made him. I promised great writing, attention to every detail, and above average quality and attitude. I promised to keep his audience in mind and be honest with him when I saw room for improvement.
But, I’m not the be all and end all of the writing world; so I was forced to ask myself, if I crossed some line when I told him how editing grammar errors and typos is only the first step to improving his whole site.
He wasn’t seeing the light (my light), but still seemed pleased with my work. He wasn’t using half of my suggestions, and I’m really not proud of the site. He does get millions of hits a week – so many people are checking out my work, but I have not added the job to my portfolio.
In reality, most of the work on the site looks just as it did several months ago. And the site is growing in popularity.
How can we make people know they NEED us – when they may be doing just fine with a mediocre business. And worse – what do we do when they hire us and pay us but don’t allow us to do our jobs?
If you’re like me – you can’t stifle the passion that goes into your work. And, work with passion at the core will last. As soon as we find the PROPER place to start.
I ask myself if these clients who won’t listen are actually my audience. I’m stubborn. Do I really want to deal with people who close their eyes to my views?
Maybe I should just preach to the choir – so to speak. Maybe I should just sell my services to people who will use them properly.
Then again, I don’t read every book cover to cover or listen to every CD from beginning to end. Maybe this would piss off the artist.
Perhaps, a tougher goal would be to reach the unreachable audience. After all, I don’t learn many lessons from those clients who cause me no strife. If my goal is to grammar-itize the web world (in this case) – I am going to HAVE to approach those who NEED me most. And it probably won’t be people who are exactly like me.
So, if we want to put an end to this ongoing festival of the sub-par – we do need to dive right in. But ALWAYS consider your audience and learn to speak like them — you will to in order to get through to them
In the meantime…I’m considering trying to get a rapper to name himself after my company – in hopes that that might call more positive attention to my abilities as a business woman.
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