Great Expectations

Gun’s Quote-of-the-Week:

“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy course; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

-Theodore Roosevelt

I practiced in my mind this weekend, since Friday, what the conversation that was going to happen this week would be like. I rehearsed lines, played out scenarios and simulated conferences, sometimes out loud, so that I could hear myself echo what was about to be set before me this week.

My client isn’t happy. Apparently, he isn’t happy at all. Apparently, that means he talked to my boss, when my boss had the day off. (Which makes it so much better…) Thus, my boss calls me in to a meeting bright and early tomorrow at 7 am to discuss why my client isn’t happy.

This is the same client that I have bent over backwards for. This is the client that had a contract with my firm for so much money, and I spent double the amount of fee we had in the job to make it right. He thinks he got shafted while I simultaneously have to defend to my boss why I spent so much time on it. The building is complex, state-of-the-art and pushed a lot of boundaries. While it’s not my first rodeo, apparently this guy thinks that it is. He asked my boss to review and revise the job over the weekend. He then asked for me to not be placed on his projects again.

I’m not sure what I can do to make this guy happy, and I’m not sure what I did to make him unhappy. When you go out of your way and work long hours to make sure something is done correctly, you can’t help but wonder why somebody else doesn’t share the same opinion.

For now, he’s unhappy enough to call a meeting with me and my boss to discuss his misgivings. I will find out what it is, exactly, that went wrong.

I like criticism about as much as cats like water, Kim Jong-un likes the United States, Iran likes Israel and Rush Limbaugh likes Barak Obama. Perhaps it’s because I don’t care to leave anything on the field and often put too much time, effort and passion towards the things that I care about. If I am consistent in any one thing, it is being over-the-top. That’s why when I miss the mark or have to be corrected it hurts. It’s balls-to-wall or nothing at all and I suppose I’m arrogant enough to think that others should recognize that, too. This does not all mean to suggest that everything that I do is right or that I don’t make mistakes. I’m human and have flaws just as anyone else.

There are times when no matter what you do you simply cannot live up to the great expectations that others arbitrarily place on you. Sometimes you have to have the attitude that critics wouldn’t be critics if they actually knew what they were talking about and could do it, too. There’s a balance there where you have to take criticism for what it is worth, use it to get better and leave the rest behind. That’s tough. For me, life and work are both very intentional and very personal. I move forward knowing that if what I did was that simple and that easy, everybody would be doing it.

…and knowing that being criticized for what I do is better than not being criticized because of doing nothing at all.

…and that’s why it’s a Gun’s Quote!