A few years ago, I had a nightmare client.
I didn’t know then that this was, in fact, the technical term for such a client; I just thought that they knew what they wanted and that they were a little arrogant and difficult to get along with.
Nothing too out of the ordinary, or so I thought.
What they actually were, in fact, was an upstart, chip on their shoulder, arrogant jerk and bully, so used to making scenes, stamping their feet, and always getting their way, that they had no respect for any other opinion other than their own, self inflated, self aggrandised thoughts.
The only dialogue this client must have had was with themselves.
Before long he started reminding me of those teachers we had in secondary school who would lose their temper and fly off the handle so loudly and make such a huge scene that you couldn’t help but feel embarrassed for them.
I swear I tried to make it work, repeatedly, but this obviously wasn’t conducive to dialogue or to doing good work.
In the Navy SEALs you’re expected to do your best work as the drill sergeant abuses you and as you’re drowning in the ocean’s surf and waves are crashing around you and you’re about to die drowned.
We are not Navy SEALs though, and however gung ho and badass this client thought he was, their business had nothing to do with training elite soldiers to be hunter-killers either.
However Rambo this client felt, the truth is their business was far more tame and sedentary.
I kept quiet.
I rolled with the metaphorical punches and I took the yelling and the snide remarks and the constant knocking of every piece of work we did because obviously, yes, the client knew my business far better than I, and what knowledge could I, a mere child, even have?
I was patient, and I did the work well, diligently, often doing it myself instead of trusting my best team members and deputy to handle it (this was a mistake).
I handled all client communications myself, instead of following set procedures and handing them off to their account manager (this was also a mistake).
I focused on the money we were being paid, which wasn’t a fortune, and certainly not worth the abuse, but hey, we fought to get this account, so am I just going to give it up? (this was a huge mistake)
But my greatest mistake was that when things came to a head one day, and I got tired of being yelled at in increasing volume, and I got up from my chair, and said “that’s it, I quit”, and quietly, without a scene, left their premises, I somehow, and don’t ask me how, accepted to walk myself back from my decision and continue working with the client.
Even after I had had enough and to the back teeth and had walked out of their meeting room, I somehow still let them bully me into accepting to return and to continue working with them.
Looking back at this today, this was one of the lowest moments in all of my time as a business owner.
But let’s get to the meaty bit.
I was due to go to California with some friends.
The trip of a lifetime – we were going to drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles in a Mustang convertible, stop along the way, camp in Big Sur – this was gonna be incredible and I was so excited.
So why can’t I sleep, and why am I tossing and turning long into the night? And why am I dreaming about this freaking client when I do manage to sleep?
There was only one solution to it.
I fired the client, again.
And I went to California and had a whale of a time, and I ate incredible tacos and drank too many Lagunitas, dipped my toes in the ocean, and saw so many classic Porsches, and expanded my horizons and changed my perspectives, and I came back home and got back to work totally refreshed, and although I can’t say I never thought about that arsehole client ever again, I never ever had him in my dreams ever again, and screw him and anyone who even vaguely looks like him.
