Monday, April 19, 2010

The BuG or the WindShield

"well it's a strange old game
- you learn it slow...
one step forward and it's back to go.
sometimes you're the windshield,
sometimes you're the bug"

I can't tell you the amount of times I have been taken in by the seductive lines of a client, the lure of the words: "unlimited budget, anything goes, need it right away".
Thinking I am the windshield I fly, throwing myself into the creative process with total abandon. Days spent immersed, swallowed up from concept sketches to the final designs sent off.
I think this won't happen again, and it does.
...here I am again, a client not paying, not responding to emails, and in the middle a friend who called me initially to help out his son, and now... I am the bug once again.
Not thinking I needed a contract, money upfront, just thinking about their needs.
Ouch, squished again.

4 comments:

Charlie @ Discovering Mandarin said...

yes, contract, and money up front is a must. got caught out a couple of times myself.

Sad but true.

Chin up, dust yourself down and hop back on the freelance bike.

hollyherick said...

Ouch, I heard that!

Tocalabocina said...

It is tough to walk the line between being the caring, generous people we aspire to be, and the kind that is guarded and deffensive, afraid to get burned.

The squishing part does really hurt. Still, I think I'd rather be the bug than the windshield.

Alexis K. Bond said...

in some ways it is just too hard to not live by trust in the hope that there is goodness in fellow human...for some it is almost as detrimental as not being paid...just less tangible perhpas