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Question of the Day: Did You Earn It?

You took some money from a client today. The question we have for you is did you earn it? Did you trash a great headline or piece of design and push through the wall to get to something that one-upped it? Or did you settle so you could go home and sit on the couch? Did you push back when your brain (or gut) told you your client’s decision or revision was a bad one? Or did you go on autopilot and crap it out? Did you do something that would get a hot chick in bed with you after hearing your story? Or would you turn off even the most desperate cougar? Seriously, did you earn it today? Or did you create something any half-baked hack could?

20 days ago / / Link

Comment

  1. Not curin’ cancer here boys. It’s just a bunch of pretty pictures selling people shit that they probably don’t need. I love my job and couldn’t imagine doing anything else – but come on, this is taking things a bit too seriously. Maybe I’m a hack.

    — Alexia Peese · Apr 23, 08:15 AM · #

  2. You may very well be.

    — The Denver Egotist · Apr 23, 08:27 AM · #

  3. Sometimes you have to embrace your inner hack.

    — Matt · Apr 24, 04:36 AM · #

  4. I think it’s a valid question – in fact, its something I ask myself every day, especially since going full time. (As a freelancer, the answer was easy – No, I didn’t really earn it. A little bit of effort to make the big bucks – honestly, it was something I always felt shame for.)

    Now I am actually working 5 full days a week, instead of 5 days a month at best. I draw all day, create something from nothing, work to what I believe is my potential, try to make everybody happy. While I agree with Alexia – about not curing cancer – I still think my job is important, even if just on a superficial level. I’m an organizer of information, a visual communicator, I make things look less dull & hopefully easier to read. Really, where would the world be, what would it look like, without design? Pretty damn boring, in my opinion.

    To answer the original question – Do I actually earn the $$$? – I have no freaking idea. I show up every day, try my best at the only thing I am good at, & hope for good results. My boss seems to think I’m “worthy”, but who knows.

    — Brooke · Apr 24, 10:12 AM · #

  5. “You took some money from a client today. The question we have for you is did you earn it?”

    A better question would be, “Your client offered you some money to do mediocre work today. Did you risk losing it by creating something great instead?”

    — Matt · Apr 24, 03:51 PM · #

  6. he he

    — Randall Erkelens · Apr 24, 08:57 PM · #

  7. Matt, your clients want mediocre work? That comment indicates one of two things to us. You work at a shop that needs to find some clients who have higher expectations than just mediocre. Or you work at a shop that attracts mediocre clients because of the work you already do. So which is it?

    — The Denver Egotist · Apr 25, 03:45 AM · #

  8. Egotist,

    Ha ha. Neither. Go read Paul Arden’s book, “It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be.” He writes about how often large clients have short-term goals that require them to ask for safe work. But he writes that the situation is to our benefit, because creative people are rebellious by nature. And mediocrity gives us something to push up against. And he was the ECD of Saatchi, so he’d know. Let me know what you think.

    — Matt · Apr 26, 06:01 AM · #

  9. That’s such a great book. His companion volume, “Whatever you think, think the opposite” is amazing too.

    — e kiker · Apr 28, 12:00 PM · #

  10. Read both of Arden’s books. Love both of Arden’s books. Timeless masterpieces.

    — The Denver Egotist · May 3, 02:01 PM · #