Filed under: life
“I didn’t want to say anything.”
I’ve had these six words on my mind for a few days. I keep asking myself, “This might be one of the worst statements said.” It indicates that someone sees something wrong in a situation, and doesn’t say anything until it’s resolved for better or worse.
Instead of saying something, doing something, idleness ensues, and the “whatever” rally cry keeps us isolated in our joy and suffering.
I’ve had this phrase told to me after a few big seasons of life, and when I heard the words I felt sad that my friend(s) hadn’t spoken up, hadn’t expressed their concern for my wellbeing. The most memoriable was around 1999-2000 when I grew from a lean 180 lbs. to a 300+ lb. wad of cookie dough. At the time, food was my way of coping with a lot of internal struggles, but no one said anything until I had lost the weight a few years later. Then, and only then, did I hear multiple concerns, only they were worthless by the time I heard them. What’s the point of expressing conern after the fact?
I can’t figure out why this line of thought has been on my mind recently. I’m sure there’s some kind of deeply seeded issue I’m not realizing just yet. These things work that way, and this blog has more than once served as the ground from which to extract some of the hidden stuff.
Moving on…
I’d love to hear a collaboration between Aimee Mann and Brandi Carlile. Then again, if their powerful words and melodies, combined with their unique beauty, were to be unleashed by way of music, I doubt that even Dragonforce or The Showdown could claim any ground on their musical power.
My boy is growing like a weed. He took his first aided steps Saturday. He’s pulling himself up, and is a non-stop fountain of gibberish, trying to form words. The funny thing is that he thinks he should talk when I talk, so a phone conversation is near-impossible if he’s around because I’m laughing too much.
Last night I chose to have him on the floor next to my while I attempted to work. But soon he was drawn to the light of my MacBook Pro, and began crawling up from the floor. That’s one thing I like about his personality so far – he is one very determined guy. And he’s not pissy about getting what he wants. It’s just sheer stubborn, first-born determinination. Fascinating to wach come alive. Anyway, he finally got on my lap so we I turned on PhotoBooth, and showed him the various effects, of which he seemed to enjoy.
Finally, another lesson learned: Having a well-constructed, objective/goal-driven, mutually agreed-upon contract is an essential piece of any project for the self-employed.
This week I was given a great story to tell for future speaking gigs about business (of which one is coming up in Sept.). I have a shared client that had me design a logo for a new service. We set up clear goals/objectives, and I met all of them. I have a few emails from when the logo was finally completed. They loved it. Gave me praise, and I finalized the logo, even supplying a version specifically for embroidery. We moved on to the web site, of which my partner was working on.
Then last week we get an email with the following:
- Their main investor had seen the logo for the first time the previous day, and didn’t like it…
- They wanted a new logo icon developed…
- For no additional charges
- Within 1 week…
- If we didn’t agree to do this, the work would be taken to another design firm.
After blood had simmered from a boil to slow steam, I initiated a phone call where I negotiated a solution that everyone was happy with. I was then given objectives to meet for this new logo icon creation. That night I did exactly what was asked, and sent 3 new concepts out for review and approval.
Next morning I awake to an email saying that I was “close,” but now they wanted the logo developed even further, beyond the negotiated scope from the previous day!
After a weekend of tossing the idea around, talking with friends and my partner, and a few other things, I emailed the owner of the company with a matter-of-fact assessment of where we had been (an approved, finalized logo!) and we are now (a moving target, asking for free work).
His response: He sees my position, but is taking the work elsewhere.
Somewhere out there is another design firm about to be screwed. I hope they do their homework and get a contract up front. I’m sure glad we did.
