The image above was the first tweet and the person’s responses to me. I was trying to tell the person that, while it is true that mistakes will happen, it is not “okay” to make them…and expect that to lead to success. The person linked to a Pixar video where a quote about making mistakes was taken out of context. If you look at the video, it is clearly stated in the video that Pixar removes people from the team who continually make mistakes. When the person said Jason Fried linked to the video, I realized I could talk all day long and the person would never understand making mistakes and failing is not okay. Jason talked about this extensively so it really makes no sense to me why this person would think the video is about it being okay to make mistakes.

Learning From Your Mistakes

As I said, mistakes will happen and I think people should learn from their mistakes. That does not mean that it is “okay” to make mistakes when there are options not to. If a situation is avoidable, avoid it. The people who succeed are the ones that are not trying to correct their mistakes. Instead, they focus on creating more successes.

Successes are learning experiences as well. When something worked out right, see if you can improve upon making what went right better. That is more efficient than figuring out how to make something that went wrong…right.

It’s a Frame of Mind…

Being successful business wise means being a leader in that particular field. Being a leader means that people follow you as customers, clients, readers, fans, etc. If you make mistakes, the people following you will be inconvenienced. Does that sound like good business? People who truly want to be successful and are willing to put in the effort are trying not to make mistakes.

Let’s be real a minute. Between you and me.

Want to know why people want to hold on to the idea it is okay to make mistakes? It gives them the okay to slack. It is an excuse to not be the best they can be. Most likely because they are already making mistakes…and they want that to be okay.

But Tyme…the Edison thing…

It took Edison 1000 attempts to make the electric light bulb. The person who tweeted me said, “Personally, I find it worth the effort to allow people to screw up. Like Edison said, “He also knows of 1000 ways not to make the bulb”. Putting this in a business scenario, is it okay for a business owner to mess up 1000 times trying to do one thing?

The more a company scales, the more costly it is to fix a mistake. When no one knows about a company, they can make a million mistakes and no one knows it. That gives the appearance that it is okay to make a mistake.

If your car breaks down, and you take the car to the dealership or the repairshop for repairs. When you get your car back, and you have the same problem – do you say, “Oh, that’s okay! Everyone makes mistakes!” Or do you wish they fixed the problem correctly in the first place?

If your spouse cheats on you, and you are kind enough to forgive him or her, and your spouse cheats again, is it okay because your spouse made the mistake of making the same mistake twice?

The bank did not post your deposit, causing checks on your account to bounce. The bank is fixing the problem, but you have to contact the people you wrote the check to, tell them to send it through again, make sure the bank reimburses you for the fees they charged…was that mistake really okay?

Your boss gives you a date when a project is due. Three weeks before the project is due, your boss says the project is really due in two days and it better be done. Would you be okay with that mistake?

Truth: most people wish the mistake didn’t happen in the first place.

If people do not generally like being inconvenienced by mistakes, how can someone logically say it is okay to screw up in business situations?

Perhaps, if you focused on successes, you wouldn’t make mistakes. Keep thinking it is okay to make mistakes, you will make them. Over and over again.

And when you do not have the success you want…you will know why.

First, quick breakdown on what happened

Before I explain my reaction, let’s look at what happened.

• The designer accepted the job and began work on the project.
• The designer submitted a complete concept to the client, within 24 hours, requesting revision suggestions.
• Designer receives revisions from the client, which he or she does not like, attempts to convince the client not to use the suggestions.
• Designer makes the revisions, as per the request of the client, and resubmits it to the client.
• Several days later, client tells the designer he or she prefers something similar to the original submission. Client does not admit he or she was wrong and the designer was right.
• Designer makes the changes and resubmits. Client likes the new design.
• Designer begins development on the site and completes it within 24 hours.
• Designer does not have the content for the design, therefore, cannot finish the design.
• Designer waits a couple of weeks for the client to give the designer the content.
• Designer receives content from client in a format that was not easy for the designer to use. Designer complains about this.
• Client wants the site live ASAP, and a discount.

Note this is one designer finishing the project beginning to end so the designer did not need to outsource anything.

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

Why did the designer start work on the project without having the content?

The designer invited this problem to happen by not having all of the important items needed to create and complete an optimal design. The design is supposed to compliment the content, not the other way around. Customers and readers are not coming to the site to see the pretty design. Why does this situation happen?

Money.

The designer will accept the job, accept a deposit, and begin work on the project. Sort of like building a house without the foundation. A car without the frame. Does a surgeon start operating before making a diagnosis? Does a good attorney walk into a courtroom unprepared? Will any of those situations work out well? Most likely not.

Designers accept jobs without the content all the time. Then will complain if the content does not fit, is not given in the proper format or worse, the content sucks. The delay with the customer giving the content to the designer is the customer’s fault.

WRONG: The designer should not have started work on the job until he or she had the content.

Let’s Talk About the REAL Issue

Many designs look good but they suck. Why? They do not solve real problems.

• They do not help convert viewers to customers.
• They do not have specific calls to actions.
• They have usability issues.
• They are not SEO friendly.

Have you ever met someone who is beautiful or handsome on the outside but his or her personality is ugly? That is the problem with building a site without the content. The design might look great but will under-perform. The internet is filled with under performing designs.

It is about time designers stepped up and addressed this issue.

Guidance

When I work with clients, and let me be clear I am not designer, I guide them through the process. When I have worked with designers, the good ones took a similar role. They guided me through the process. As an expert, for lack of another word, the inexperienced person looks for guidance from the more experienced person.

By the designer starting the project before having the content, he or she allowed the client to gain control over their time (or hassle about it later). Note the project was on the designer’s calendar for six weeks. Note that the designer worked over the weekend, to cut/paste the content into the design. Was that amount of time included in the cost of the design? If it wasn’t, is it fair to pass that on to the client? No…because….say it with me…

The designer took the job without the content and obviously did not specify how the content should be given to the designer.

Yes, I realize this is only a graphic but unfortunately, designers put themselves in this situation all the time. Sure, there are some situations when development of a project (like coding) will start without the content (ideally, the content is being created while other elements are being worked on) but this was not a large project.

The real question: once a designer experiences this type of issue, does the designer stop taking projects without the content or does the designer let the cycle continue.

What would you do?

The cost of starting a business was once very high. You had to rent office space, hire an accounting and payroll department, buy a telephone system, etc. This isn’t the case today. Someone who is good at running a business can start one on a shoestring budget and look just as big as anyone else. Computers are cheap, a lot of software is free, and you can outsource many parts of your business as you go and simply pay as you go.

Say what????

Guess what? All businesses are not online businesses. I suppose what he meant was “never hire an MBA for a online company”. Then he goes on to talk about why someone with an MBA is looking for a job. He makes the huge assumption the person wants his or her own business. My master’s is in Business Management but I was the rare one that had no intention of working for someone else. The people I know that have MBAs have no desire to work for themselves. They want and enjoy the corporate life. They have no desire at all to grow a company from scratch.

And exactly what type of business are they supposed to start on their own? Consulting is not the same as working in a corporate structure. What are they supposed to do, start a widgets company so they can manage it? Let’s be real, owning a company and managing one are two different things. It is not wrong to not want the responsibility of ownership. Reading on, the emotion just poured on…

For an MBA, the pretty piece of paper they have hanging on their wall can make them less careful.

If you are looking to hire someone, don’t overlook them simply because they have an MBA, but at the same time don’t over-value their degree and let it blind you to their actual real-life skills.

Sounds like someone who did not get the job or client because they did not have the degree. In the vein of keeping it real, in business (corporate world) not having the master’s degree is like trying to be an engineer without the certifications. Eventually the lack of certifications will cripple the ability to earn higher incomes. For many positions, or even consulting, you cannot get your foot in the door without the degree.

How about this: only hire those qualified

Most top-level professions have requirements, something that legitimizes a person as qualified. I do not agree with the assumption that having the requirement makes the person qualified for the job, but there should be some requirements in place. Honestly, unqualified or people who are not optimal for the position are hired often:

• Ever had the friend that used to give you free stuff? That is not good for the company’s bottom line.
• Ever seen someone get a job because he or she knew the right people, but were not qualified for the job?
• Let’s not forget the people who are granted promotions based on seniority, not skill.

I could go on and on. Online companies are finding out that so-called “social media experts” really have no idea what they are doing. They use the internet being relatively new as an excuse but the truth is, the internet is old enough that many of the mistakes from the past are being repeated today – which makes them avoidable.

It is what it is

The premise of the article is correct: do not hire unqualified people and do not assume someone having a degree or certification makes them qualified. However to say “never hire ” is an emotional statement, not qualified statement based on fact. The truth is there are many MBAs (or whatever) that are more than qualified.

I could easily say “do not hire someone that is a business consultant that does not have a business degree” (as it seems to be the situation of the writer), but I do not. Why? Because it is possible to gain business experience doing something else. My objectivity will not let me overlook that.

In your decisions, be objective and step back from the emotions. And do not write articles without solid foundations.

Makes you look bad.

This time the thing nagging my brain is MMO Champion, one of the leading World of Warcraft information sites. MMO Champion is known for breaking news. WoW.com informs and educates readers, not necessarily being the first to deliver the news. The two sites complement each other because WoW.com covers more in-depth articles than MMO Champion, for example How-To Guides or more directly, explaining the changes MMO Champion reports and how it will affect players in the game. MMO Champion fills the gaps in WoW’s news delivery. Two different sites with two very different clear cut goals that complement each other.

Delving further, the founder of MMO Champion is in his early 20s, sold the site and still updates it, and has a very focused updating schedule.

Describe a typical workday at MMO-Champion.

Hmm … I don’t think I can explain that without looking crazy. When a patch is on test realms, there are a few things I have to keep in mind. Patches can be released as early as 6:00 p.m. (CET) and as late as 7:00 a.m. The European CMs can post patch note update between 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., and people can first-kill bosses or discover very important stuff in all time zones.

I never sleep for more than three or four hours in a row — it’s not that bad when you’re used to it — and just try to be here when something happens. But it’s not always that bad. When nothing important happens, I can just sleep for 10 hours, wake up, spend an hour or two checking the blue posts and writing a news, post it, and do whatever I want for the rest of the day. But that didn’t happen a lot in 2008 or 2009, and I usually use this free time to work on new features for the site.

So you work seven days a week?

Yes, especially now that Blizzard posters are also active during the weekend. First kills can happen seven days a week. Even on Sunday, I still have to work on news for the day after. It usually takes slightly more time than during the week, because it’s harder to fill a home page when there isn’t any official post to report.

That focus is what led to him being able to sell the site within the first year of its existence.

They want it…but not that bad…

I know many people who want a “big” site like MMO Champion (millions of readers per month) but do not want to put in the effort Fabien exerts daily to maintain a quality site. Their expectations are not realistic. Most of the people I know who have successful sites lived and breathed those sites to get them off the ground. Their social lives tanked because the responsibilities of the site took precedence and they have no regrets because they enjoy what they do. Listen to Fabien’s description of his social life:

And what about you? Are you working day by day on MMO-Champion, or are you looking forward to new projects and plans?

The site totally killed my social life over the last two years. Most of the people I know tell me to “get a real job,” because video games and internet are definitely not serious businesses. I live during the night most of the year, and I still love this job. ^^

I will probably try to change a few things and start recruiting people to let me do a few things I can’t do right now, like attending major events and spending more time creating other projects.

Note what he said. He did not say he wanted the extra time to go swimming, hang out in the club, etc. He wanted the free time to attend more events or create other projects. The hard word he is putting in now could easily allow him to retire at 30, in plenty of time to have kids, raise a family, and enjoy life. Let’s be real…if that were to happen he earned it. He put in the hours, the effort, and made the sacrifices.

He receives tens of millions of page views per month from the millions of unique people who visits his site. Does he share his stats? Only when asked as he is very humble about it. When he was a rising star, did he publish his stats? Nope. He was too busy working on the site and the results were obvious from the links and interaction on his site. Thinking about it more, the big sites normally do not brag about their stats, even as they are becoming powerhouses. They might state the stats for an advertising page but that is it. I definitely did not when I had my large gaming site. I was too busy scaling the site and dealing with the problems that arise when there is an increase in visitors for the thought to cross my mind (interesting tidbit: I talked more about my stats with the site after I closed it than when I had it. I knew the traffic would come with the effort I was putting in so there was no reason to stress it). Let me be clear, statistics are important but people focused on their stats to the point of posting them online usually are slacking in other areas, because their focus is wrong, that could help grow their site. Especially since most site owners focus on the wrong stats.

Fabien also does not have goals that are out of his reach. He knows the work involved to reach his goals and does not have a problem putting in the effort, or spending the money (if needed). He made improvements in data mining and hired the people needed to create the tools. This investment made it easier for him to update the site and he used the extra time wisely. He reinvested it in the site or other projects. As of the last interview I could find, he no longer plays WoW because he spends so much time mining for news or beta testing. By the time he is done, he feels as though he played the game. That is how he finds balance and continues to enjoy what he does. His enthusiasm shows in his dedication.

This is the part where someone usually says there are many ways to have a successful business. There sure are, pat yourself on the back. There are many ways to go about it but hard work and dedication is rarely something that can be taken away, be successful and maintain that success. Using MMO Champion as an example, unless something big is going on, he only makes one news update per day. However, he has quite a bit of data to go through daily to make that update as the news and developer updates are made all throughout the day. If he misses something, his audience let’s him know about it. His audience expects the quality to continue.

As far as competition is concerned, he will have minimal competition. There are many WoW sites but very few have the quality content he has. Why? They are not willing to put in the effort Fabien does.

Are you that person?

Are you the person that wants success but not enough to consistently work hard to reach your goals? Are you the person that does not mind hard work and looks forward to challenges that come up? Be honest with yourself. If going to the beach or the club on weeknights or weekends is a priority to you, then you are in conflict with having a “big” successful business. Better to know the truth early on than frustrate yourself trying to achieve something that most likely will not happen (until the focus and dedication changes).

Why did that site stick in my mind?

It is an example of what I want to do, what I’ll need to do, and a variation of the success I’d like to have. A quality entity that people appreciate.

And I’m willing to work for it.

This is how many people start their online projects. They have an idea, come up with a general plan on what they want, how they will accomplish it, and dive in. Ironically, many of the successful businesses do not start with the idea of being profitable or being a business. They start with the owner(s) doing what they love and naturally achieve success through their hard work, which is fun to them. I was one of those people when I had my gaming community. However, if your business scales large enough, you’ll bump into the same issue that many business owners ignore.

And your competition is…

Social media makes it very easy to interact with people and even become friends. However, let’s look at something realistically. You want to have a site that is a leader in the community.

That means the owners of other sites have to give up or shift their leader status to make room for you.

You see what I’m saying?

Let’s say I want the number one World of Warcraft site because I found ways to improve social interaction and the way news within the community is presented. Since Cataclysm went into Alpha, this is the perfect time to start the site and get the momentum going. When I made that decision, I’m saying that wow.com is my target. For me to be #1, they need to be #2 or lower. All the ones under them will shift down as I move up, if they survive.

As I rise in popularity, wow.com notices my site and links to it. Then they offer me a column. I consider taking it because the money would come in handy and it might help me increase my reach (expand my audience).

Conflict of interest

A smart business owner (wow.com) would not make the offer because they have the wisdom to accurately access the information. Apple invited Google on their board and they regret that situation now. The entire point of business is staying ahead of the competition, not getting in bed with them.

If I were thinking clearly, I’d realize taking such a position (while nice exposure), is a conflict of interest ethically unless my goal is to get ahead any way I can. By taking the position, I could find out how they do things, work hard at strengthening my foundation, and gut their site from the inside out. Meaning, use the information I learned there to push them into the #2 slot. If you think about it, the situation is similar to insider trading, which can land you in jail. Ask Martha.

The echo chamber I was talking about yesterday…

Yesterday I talked about making sure the people closest to you had the same maturity, experience, goals, etc. so that as a group you grow in the same direction at the same time. Let’s say the people closest to me do not share the same maturity and wisdom as me. Do you know what would happen in the case of “should I take the wow.com column job?”

They would encourage me to take the job without even thinking about the conflict of interest.

They would tell me the money would come in handy, the potential for my audience to grow, and how cool it would be writing for the #1 World of Warcraft site. They would not mention that a better, more ethical, strategy would be to focus on my skills as a player. Being one of the top players would cause me to have a following that is much stronger than people reading the news. They would not mention that by putting up videos on YouTube or Warcraft movies I could not gain new subscribers, especially if they are videos that would do well on machinima.com. They did not mention that the time I spend writing articles for other sites and answering questions, could be spent on mastering video editing or becoming a better player. They also would not mention that my time would be better spent making my site ready to add premium features so I could diversify my income.

They sure as hell would not tell me how pissed they would be at wow.com as I gain popularity and start taking their advertising away. They would not mention how they would have to let me go, conflict of interest and all, and how they would be focused on maintaining their position as number one…except now they are pissed off. They wouldn’t mention how, being own by AOL, they have the power to hinder my ability for making money with advertising by accept lesser paying ads to gain their advertisers back, something I could not compete with for very long because my expenses have increased (companies that take their businesses seriously do not rely on free hosting). Nor would they mention all the hell there would be as people discussed the dirty little trick I played on wow.com using social media.

They would tell me to take the job.

To a person with more experience and maturity, this situation is as easy as looking both ways before crossing the street. They would reject the offer or take the offer as a means to cripple their competition (depending on what type of business person they are). You cannot have success in business or life making the wrong decisions. And honestly, if you do not have the strength or wisdom to have the people closest to you be those of similar experience and maturity give up the idea of having a business because the decision get harder over time, not easier. This is easy.

Birds of a feather flock together.

“Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides (of the blind). If a blind person leads a blind person, both will fall into a pit.” This echoes the words of the Katha Upanishad: “Abiding in the midst of ignorance, thinking themselves wise and learned, fools go aimlessly hither and thither, like blind led by the blind.”

I decided to use the quote because it echoes something I see with social media all the time. Someone wants to excel in an area and instead of following the voice of reason from someone with experience and expertise, they follow the voices of people with an equal level of inexperience and lack of success. There is a reason why this happens. The people with more experience will often, in good faith, say things that might make someone feel “bad”, defensive, defeated…feel free to pick the term. The people with less experience and maturity will say “good job!” and boost the person’s ego.

Let us look at an example. I wrote an article called The Peter Principle and Fast Company. I was told I was being “mean”, I was “picking on them” and I should be more encouraging (although Scoble said it was “spot on”. Except, what I was saying was true. I was not blindly writing an article, I made a point and backed it up systematically. Eventually, point by point, it all came true. It was sad to watch it unfold because it did not have to be that way, but things happen for a reason. Fast Company is now making a comeback (after killing off the video project, changing management and using a better design) which is great because the site used to be a good business resource.

Ego vs The Truth

Excelling at anything means pushing yourself and successfully accomplishing goals that become harder over time. Business decisions do not become easier over time, they become more complicated the more the business scales. Many businesses start with owners making decisions but not in the frame of mind of the decisions being business decisions.

It is sort of like having the boy/girlfriend/spouse/significant other that is less mature than you are. When you enter in a relationship like that, you cannot expect the person to mature on your timetable. You cannot expect the same level of support from someone without the same maturity level and it is unfair to ask them (cruel in my opinion because it causes him or her to jump through hoops they cannot successfully jump long-term). When you enter the relationship, you are saying you are the leader and you will guide the two of you down the right paths…whether you want to admit it or not. Unless the person magically matures while you stay stagnant for them to catch up, it will always be that way.

In business, if you surround yourself with people with less experience, you will end up hindering your abilities to reach your goals. These well meaning people do not have the knowledge or experience to guide you in the right direction. Instead of telling you the feedback you need to hear, not hurting your feelings will be of more importance. In addition, as your business scales, you will encounter very tough decisions these well-meaning people will guess at answers to. While your business declines instead of excels, your well-meaning friends with less experience that lead you to the cliff and helped push you off, will be there to support you.

You decide your destiny by picking those close to you. If you pick people with similar interests, experience and maturity, together the group will excel in similar directions. Or you can let those without similar experience and maturity stroke your ego and distract your focus.

Reality

Instead, part of every entrepreneurs job is to invent the future. I also call it “kicking your own ass”. Someone is out there looking to put you out of business. Someone is always out there who thinks they have a better idea than you have. A better solution than you have. A better or more efficient product than you have. If there is someone out there who can “kick your ass” by doing it better, its part of your job as the owner of the company to stay ahead of them and “kick your own ass” before someone else does.

The above quote was from an article Mark Cuban wrote about not listening to customers. Many times customers honestly do not know what they want until they have it. The point being: you have to be careful whom you listen to.

Entrepreneurs always need to be reminded that its not the job of their customers to know what they don’t know. In other words, your customers have a tough enough time doing their jobs. They don’t spend time trying to reinvent their industries or how their jobs are performed. Sure, every now and then you come across an exception. But you can’t bet the company on your finding that person at one of your customers.

If the people you spend the most time with, share your secrets with, and listen to advice from have the same frame of mind, similar maturity level and experience they can support and aid you in re-inventing the future, which is what entrepreneurs need to do to have success. People with less maturity, experience, and different goals will drain your focus.

Because you cannot expect them to know what they have not learned.

Today, I found an excellent use for guest authors: people sharing their stories. That is a true guest author, not someone writing in hopes to increase their reach…someone sharing their experience. I found it on Get Rich Slowly (GRS), “Reader Story: I’m Done with Debt“. I want to read more of these.

The title lets the reader know it is a guest article

One of the reasons why I do not like guest articles is because I usually do not find out it is a guest article until after I have clicked over to the site or started reading the article via RSS. When a reader subscribes to a site and enjoys reading the author, getting a guest article is like going to a restaurant, ordering a steak and getting a hamburger. Hamburgers are good but it was not what he customer asked for.

With the GRS reader stories, I know at a glance the content is not from the owner of the site and, if the title interests me, then I will click over or continue reading the article.

The reader stories fit in with the other content on the site

The reader stories fit in with the blog. They are on topic because they detail situations his readers are going through while practicing the principles detailed on his blog or sharing experiences that are causing them to practice the principles detailed on his blog. With a blog like GRS, Roth needs people to share their stories, their struggles and successes. His site and book(s) are his business. He is very careful to write the majority of the articles on his site, but highlighting other people’s stories benefits him greatly. These people are sharing an experience, while practicing his principles, that he might not have experienced (and shared with his audience). The journey to financial freedom is different for everyone depending on his or her circumstances. People can connect easier when they see someone going through a similar circumstance.

Carefully chosen guest articles

Yes, GRS has guest authors (what seem like one-time entries) and staff writers. However, if you look at their guest articles, they cover topics that were not written about before, or are topics that anyone can relate to. For example, Are We There Yet? How Will You Know When You’re Rich?

Look closely at the article. The article links back to other articles previously written on GRS, clearly fits into a pre-establish category on the site (it is on topic) and most important, the article shows that what J.D. Roth writes works:

On one level, my husband and I are the poster children for Why You Should Establish an Emergency Fund. We did the things that readers of this blog do, including:

* using the debt snowball to pay off our debts
* establishing an emergency fund
* establishing a habit of contributing to retirement accounts
* spending less than we earned

This meant that when I lost my job, we knew we had resources to fall back on. In addition, by viewing our financial situation as just another challenge, we adopted many of the cost-cutting strategies on this and other blogs, which allowed us to substantially reduce our expenses.

Note the part that I highlighted. This article reinforces the principles written about on the site, and shares a user’s experience. The article fits in with the site. Usually, a reader decides to write an article and the site owner might check for grammar and makes sure that the general topic applies but not how it fits in with the site. Another guest article is about a topic Roth had not written about previously, Finding Frugal Fun with Board Games. Note the number of affiliate links for GRS. In other words, Roth makes a business decision each time he posts an article (whether he’s realizing it or not). He makes sure the article will profit him in the long run and while he’s doing that, he gives others exposure. That is what Roth is known for, maximizing opportunities to increase his wealth.

In the end…

Roth has demonstrated a good approach (in my opinion) to mixing staff and guest articles on his site. The guest articles and stories serve a purpose other than expanding reach or gaining exposure. Each guest article or story he posts helps build his business and more important, gives the writer encouragement to continue their path to financial freedom while encouraging readers to continue on their path to financial success.

I made sure to start typing intently prior to when they started discussing key points so I could freely type my thoughts without them knowing it. I had on my poker face, smiling when appropriate and typing in a continuous fashion. Otherwise, I think it would be like the situations we see on TV where the psychiatrist listens intently and when he or she starts writing, the patient knows something important was said. While I was typing, listening to their excuses as to why they missed their deadlines, I thought to myself, “WTF?”.

A quick note on relationships

No relationship is perfect so of course you will have disagreements and hurt feelings. However, relationships are supposed to strengthen you, not weaken you. When someone is draining you to the point you are not functioning the way you should, that is not the right person for you. The right person would realize you have things that need to be done, would put their personal issues aside, help you accomplish the goal, then go back to dealing with the problem that is causing so much drama the ability to function has been decreased.

Let’s put this in perspective by looking at the following scenarios:

• You buy tickets to go to a concert.
• You hire someone to fix something in your home.
• You need to have your car fixed and took it in for repair. It is supposed to be ready by the end of the day.
• You have an appointment at 9am with the bank to sign mortgage papers.

Would it be acceptable to you that the concert was canceled, the person coming to fix the problem did not show up, the car was not fixed, and the mortgage papers were not ready because…someone got in a fight with their spouse/significant other?

Of course not. The good spouse would be backstage to support their spouse no matter how pissed off. Or will take things off the repair person’s schedule so they could be at your house on time. Do you see the difference? The person that drains you, pulling you out the door backwards either needs to straighten it up right now, or you need to move on. It is not a healthy relationship. Moving on….

The tough choices, which really aren’t tough…

After the meeting, I had to tell my client what the problem was. There were project flow issues but the root of the issue was these talented people letting their personal issues come into the work area. The two guys with the martial issues were normally excellent workers. If they said something would be done on Friday the 18th, it was done Friday the 11th, without exception. My client did not like projects being dependent whether the employees have a happy home life.

This was not a workforce problem. The team gets along well; there was no reason to miss the deadline other than slacking. For my client the resolution is simple: either the employees get it together right now or they will be fired. For the employees the decision is simple: get a divorce, fix the problem, or continue on this same path.

I advised my client to have a stern talk with the employees, do not mention their personal issues and tell them they are walking on a fine line. Give them enough rope to hang themselves.

Then begin looking for replacements because relationship issues do not resolve themselves overnight but if they do straighten up he will have an even stronger team. People do not change instantaneously. Usually, the couple slips into the same bad habits until they end up in divorce court. Replacements will boost the team because these two key employees are no longer strong. Their word means nothing because of all the broken promises.

They are no longer the best.

In the end…

There will be times when personal problems get us down. We are human. However, just like being a noob is not an excuse to not use common sense, personal problems are not an excuse to slack in other areas of your life. Your word is golden and keeping your word helps build trust. When your word begins to mean nothing, when your words stop matching your actions…anyone or anything causing that is not “good” for you.

I hope that they become organized. I doubt it because they are in unhealthy relationships mistaking it for love. Otherwise, their spouses would be supportive, instead of draining. In addition, before someone tells me that perhaps the spouse does not know the impact his or her relationship is having on their work performance…that in itself is a sign of the relationship not working.

Why don’t they know?

I have been designing professionally for over 3 years now and am about ready to throw in the towel. I’m mainly a print guy but work in motion graphics and web as well. I really don’t think graphic design is right for me. I’m desperately looking for a career change because of the following issues i have with the biz.

I’ve been lucky but fulltime jobs with benefits of any kind are close to impossible to come by. There is no job security in this field. Most of the people i went to college with are still freelancing and have full time (non-design) jobs to supplement their income. I don’t want to struggle for work when i’m in my 40′s.

The money is a joke. Going to school, getting a degree, learning software (and keeping up with upgrades), accumulating design books for inspiration, is all way to much to put in for a lousy paycheck. The money is okay if you’re in your 20′s but it’s nothing you can retire from.

There is no line between having a personal life and being a designer. Maybe thats my problem. I want to have a life and not a career that takes up all my time. My nights and weekends are always volunteered for me where i currently work. There are no boundaries. I don’t get overtime or anything.

What people don’t understand…

Jason is exactly where he deserves to be. He’s only been designing for about three years, which makes him a rookie by anyone’s standards, but he’s asking for the same appreciation, respect, money, work hours, etc. as a designer with more experience and has already paid their dues (worked their way up).

Let’s use weight loss as an example. A person (Kelvin) wants to lose 20 pounds. To lose weight, Kelvin has to burn more calories than he takes in. Kelvin starts working out and initially begins to lose weight. Then he stops losing weight, even though his diet has not changed and he works out as he always did. He hit a plateau. Without decreasing his caloric intake, the only way to get past the plateau is to increase the level of activity. With his regular workout, he was no longer burning the same amount of calories as his body became used to the workout. Kelvin might bump into several plateaus before he reaches his goal. To maintain the weight loss he will have to continue to balance his level of activity with the amount of calories he takes in.

Careers are the same way. In the beginning the person is grateful to have a job in their field. Then comes the plateau where, if you want a promotion or you want to scale your business, you have to put it more effort. Otherwise, the person ends up like Kelvin not losing weight…you will not go backwards but you will not move forward either.

Jason is at a plateau and he will stay there until he does what it takes to get past it. If he slacks, he will go backwards which would be the equivalent of Kelvin gaining weight instead of losing weight.

Let’s look again at what he said:

There is no line between having a personal life and being a designer. Maybe thats my problem. I want to have a life and not a career that takes up all my time. My nights and weekends are always volunteered for me where i currently work. There are no boundaries. I don’t get overtime or anything.

Well, then he really doesn’t want to have his own business, does he? Because that is what should happen when you are a business owner. In the beginning, the business has to come first to scale. Unless socializing is part of the business, fun on the weekends might be an unrealistic expectation…especially in a crowded field like design where your competition who is truly passionate about design is working almost 24/7. Putting in those hours, when done properly, will allow him not to have to work so hard in the future.

When you are in a plateau, you have to work harder than you currently are to get out of the plateau. Along with working harder, wise decisions need to be made so you are not wasting your time.

Unfortunately, this is the point where many fail…

Many people cannot imagine working harder because they are upset about how things are currently. The idea of working harder to play later does not cross their mind. Or worse, they realize this is what needs to happen but they do not have the strength to do it. Instead, they keep doing what they are doing or slack (thinking they earned the right to do that) and go backwards.

Daniel Whyte brought a dose of reality to the comments:

Worried about the 13 year old devaluing your work?
He’s most likely worked hard to get to his skill level, sure he will be using a pirated copy of photoshop and such, but he is doing what you need to keep doing and that is “Learning”.

Worried about people caring about what you do?
Become a fucking rockstar.
To get recognized you need to do one thing that is amazing, do it stop being such a bitch.

I said, “Yeah!!!” out loud when I read his response. One of the reasons why I decided to write this article was because, if you continue to read the comments, they slide back into an unrealistic perspective. Encouraging, yes but unrealistic.

If you really want something, you will consistently put in the effort to achieve the goal. Do not feel bad if you find you do not want to put in the consistent effort. Realize you need to find what you are truly passionate about and do that instead. Or get a different job you might not like as much but gives you the hours/pay you want.

Either way, look in the mirror and see the type of person you really are.