Yesterday I had a very sad day. Someone has once again stirred up my faith in the goodness of the people. We lost business relationship with Japana’s photographer we’ve been using in the last few months. He was even recommended to us by another supplier of our products.
You may think it’s nothing big, but it still made an impact on me. (Yes, when start being sad, I usually stop being sad and start being awesome instead – afterall, it’s all in our control).
We commissioned Mr Y to do the photoshoot for our newest products (we’re so excited to show you them!) and I even met him on my last trip to Poland, which was a month ago. He indeed does brilliant photos.
Mr Y usually was super quick with responding and fulfilling things we asked. But then he vanished. For over two weeks he was not responding to our messages until yesterday.
He said that he didn’t do the photoshoot and announced that he will no longer be supplying us with his services as ‘he is too overwhelmed with his other commissions’. And since he was going to Poznan in a couple of hours (where we last met and where the photoshoot was supposed to take place), he just wanted to drop our products off.
Bomb dropped.
Sure, it may be his age – he is in his early 20s – or the fact that we’ve just started doing business with him. However, we always paid on time and we are not the pain-in-the-ass kind of client, hence I still can’t believe why some people have so little respect for other people’s time and business.
Treat others like you’d like to be treated
Whatever it is, business or personal, you should always keep your word. Do not promise something which you can’t or don’t want to commit to (Relationships/marriage/VC funding – it’s all the same and wrong decisions can have fatal effects).
If conditions change, as soon as you know something may take longer than you expected or you won’t be able to deliver at all – communicate it!
99% of our problems are result of a bad communication or no communication at all.
I don’t know I’m more sensitive to these things but I feel bad when I don’t deliver something. I always at least try.
Shame on you.
