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A Strong Identity

Written by: James Chan

Article Overview: The best negotiation is when you are not even negotiating. This is a true story from the life of Sam Maitin, the good artist who lived and worked in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

A Strong Identity

This is a tale of temptation. It is about one of those rare people who knew, almost from birth, that he would live by following his own vision. One could say that it is about the affirmation of identity, but in fact, Sam Maitin~{!/~}s identity was so firmly rooted he scarcely had to think about it.

Sam is an artist. He believes that being independent is an essential part of being an artist. He had his last full-time job when he was a teenager. Now he is in his seventies. He has worried about what he should paint, or whether he should take a particular commission, but he has never had to worry about who he is.
Sam says he made his choice to be independent and an artist once and for all when he was a young man, recently out of school. In order to make a living, he was doing freelance graphic work for magazines and advertising agencies, and he found that he was very good at it. However, he viewed these assignments as expedients to put food on the table and pay the bills. They were not what he wanted to spend his life doing.

He was, nevertheless, pleased when he was summoned to the office of Herbert Lubalin, who was quickly establishing himself as one of the most influential graphic designers in the world. Sam respected Lubalin~{!/~}s design work, and he was hoping to get some commissions from his firm. But this was not what Lubalin had in mind.

Lubalin began by praising Sam and saying he could contribute a lot to his company. He then offered him a full-time job, with a wage that was several times his annual earnings. It was, for Sam, an almost unimaginable sum. But it seemed to require him to live a kind of life he had never aspired to, to become another kind of person.

He told Lubalin that while he wanted to work for him, he was not looking for a full-time job, that he wanted to be an artist. Lubalin~{!/~}s reply was to increase his offer by about 25 percent. ~{!0~}Is that good enough?~{!1~} he asked.

Sam was shocked. He has never in his life been a good negotiator, and he wasn~{!/~}t trying to negotiate at that moment. Nevertheless, he was pleasantly surprised by how well he was doing at it. But what surprised him most was that Lubalin seemed unable to take his aspiration seriously. For Lubalin, the expressed desire to be an independent artist was merely a negotiating ploy; for Sam it was an identity. He said no again.

Lubalin told Sam to wait for a moment as he left the office. He returned with the owner of the firm. ~{!0~}OK,~{!1~} said the owner. ~{!0~}This will be our final offer. We don~{!/~}t want to negotiate with you any more.~{!1~} Then he quoted a sum that was nearly twice the original, very high figure.

Sam said no yet again. The owner stared at him long and hard and walked out.

Then he asked Lubalin whether he could get any freelance assignments from the firm. Lubalin replied that he could not.

It hadn~{!/~}t really occurred to Sam that he could have done anything but what he did. Those to whom he told the story immediately afterward disagreed. They thought he had been foolish, even suicidal, to walk away from such an opportunity. One artist friend argued that if he stayed for two years, he would earn as much as he might in twenty doing what he was doing. Then he could afford to pursue his art.

~{!0~}Besides,~{!1~} the friend added, ~{!0~}if you worked there, you could hire me to freelance.~{!1~}

In the years since, Sam admits that he has felt a twinge or two of regret for walking away from all that money. But at the moment it happened, he recalls, he felt scarcely any doubt. He was acting on something that he had always known: He had to be independent. He is an artist. That is his identity.

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Article Tags: advertising agencies, affirmation, being an artist, commissions, earnings, food on the table, full time job, graphic designers, graphic work, lubalin, magazines, negotiator, reply, sam maitin, seventies, several times, teenager, temptation, young man



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