We’ve all had that so called “not so ideal” client, whether we want to speak of it or not. But with each challenge, we can find opportunity. The opportunity to take a good hard look at what we are doing, a good long look into what we are giving, and a good solid look at our chosen path. So where do we begin if we are questioned or faced with adversity? Well, as Bill Murray so eloquently phrased it in the movie Stripes, “That’s the fack. Jack”. The facts are the foundation in which to stand on, whether we are a consumer or a provider. I know when I stick with the facts; I still have trouble taking the emotion out of the equation. Zebra’s don’t change their stripes.
I’m sure we can all pull the “not so pleasurable” memories from a client or two from the past, and equally on the other end as a consumer. I remember several years ago in Charlotte, getting a hair cut in my mid-twenties. I communicated what I wanted and the gal seemed to latch on to my eager beaver locks. What I walked away with was nothing like what I thought I described. Thanks for mutton. I wanted to get home as quickly as I could, to see if there was any feasible way to product & spray my way out of this new outdated mullet now adorned on my sassy 25 year old head. There wasn’t. So, I did what most people don’t do and what most people won’t do. I went back. Yes, I went back to the scissor happy gal who shucked my hair like an ear of corn and I said to her, “ya know, I’ve thought it over, and I decided to go with a pixy look instead.”… Which was basically code for,”Can you please cut off my lion tail?”
The world is made up of all kinds of people and it takes all kinds of people to make the business world go round. So, is there value in a client’s questioning or suddenly changing their course? Or is there only insult below the integrity business belt? Getting sucker punched can do a bit of damage to one’s entrepreneurial soul. So how does the provider and the consumer step out of the ring and into clear pastures, when revenge is for the nerds, and defeat is for the doormat? For me, I just wanted to have a new look. Instead of feeling resentfully ugly, I consumed my loss, circled back to those blades of power, and her pride remained intact. After all, we each gave it our best, and even at the ripe old age of 25, I knew it wouldn’t solve anything by slicing up her work, even though not receiving all that I anticipated as a consumer can be a frustrating place to land.
We can find ourselves sitting all righteous under our hard earned dollar trees. But, when we are looking at the facts, the simple questions come to my mind: Are they providing what they said they would provide? And can we discover more insight by asking: What is it about us that attract this type of outcome? Which leads me to what I believe is the deadliest question: What was their true intention?
So what do we gain from adversity as a consumer and what are we willing to live with? Is what we offer as a provider too much or too little to survive? What can we guarantee when we are not as big as the infamous LLbean outdoor, or if the hair is already on the floor? What I know is this. Takers will always be Fakers. Givers thrive by giving. And a lioness will always protect the pride.