Today artist and life coach Quinn McDonald writes about how it never pays to make a business decision out of fear.
Today, a writer client who is busy writing, but hasn't published in a while, got an offer to write on spec. "Should I take it?" he asked.
I asked, "Why would you consider doing it?" He thought it over and said, "If I refuse, the editor won't use me again."
"How do you know that?" I asked.
"I just think that's why I'm being tapped for spec," he said.
"When you worked in a business, did your boss ever ask you to work a day for free?" I asked.
"No, but I did put in a lot of overtime that I didn't get paid for because I was on salary," he said.
"And you did that because. . . " I asked.
"I wanted to show my loyalty," he said.
"What is the advantage of showing loyalty in this case?" I asked.
"Well, if I write the first article for free, I might get more work," he said.
"Do you know you will?" I asked.
"No. I just think I will," he said.
"I don't hear a lot of enthusiasm for this project in your voice. How long will it take you to write that article?" I asked.
"Well, with the research and interviews, maybe 12 hours or so," he said.
"You've been writing a while. What are you getting paid by other clients?" I asked.
"Well, hourly it's $75 an hour. Some clients pay me per word. But that depends a lot on the publication. A well-known national publication will pay me $5 a word, a small start-up maybe fifty cents a word," he said.
"So we're talking about $900 dollars on an hourly rate, maybe $750 for a 1,500-word article for a start-up. Would you risk that on a stock that may turn into something? Would you bet it on a horse race, knowing you could lose it all or win a lot?"
"No," he said, "And I'm starting to see that giving away what I've taken a long time to perfect doesn't sound like a good business decision. I was making it out of fear," he said.
Another great lesson: never make a business decision out of fear.
Read the whole article and more of Quinn's ideas
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