Some people or businesses think that working with them is a privilege – that if you work with them, you might overlook the financial aspect “simply because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” or settle for just 5% of what you’re truly worth, simply because it’s “so-and-so” or because their company has a well-known name and reputation in their field. I’ve encountered this mindset more than once, and it’s precisely why I’ve refused to work with people who think this way. As I mentioned in a previous post, this isn’t arrogance, but rather a way to preserve your dignity and the dignity of your profession. Yet, it seems that even if you don’t work with them or if you have a failed experience with them and decide not to repeat it, they won’t leave your mind or your world. These are the kind of people who build their successes and stories on you and those around you.
The problem is that at first, you might think that the people who hold this mentality are only those who run big, well-known tech companies or successful projects, but that’s not necessarily true. What’s more disheartening is that the people who hold this mentality are often the same ones who offer you advice at every turn, “and these long-winded pieces of advice are nothing more than pure marketing ploys,” a golden ticket they flash at trade shows, forums, and on certain screens, carrying it with them to every corner.
Every time I open my eyes and discover someone with this mentality and way of thinking, I’m convinced that most people who boast all the time are failures by all measures in the real world, whether in dealing with their clients if their job requires it, in dealing with people if they need to accomplish something, or even in their own projects if they managed to complete them before abandoning them to talk about their “successes.”
What’s worse is that whether you worked with them or not, whether you reached an agreement with them or not, they will come back one day to claim credit for your success. At the first opportunity they find, they may congratulate you on your achievements, magnify them, and then congratulate themselves, boasting that they predicted your success one day or that they made it happen “by tweeting” something that supposedly led to your success.