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The Illusion of Security

Written by: James Chan

Article Overview: There are few things that cause more anxiety than the aspiration to safety. The ability to accept this gives us the wisdom required to be a serial entrepreneur.

The Illusion of Security

As we have already seen, entrepreneurs are always looking for a breakthrough~{!*~}that big job that will establish the business and keep income rolling in for a good long time. But, as Steve Sherretta learned, what seems to be a breakthrough can turn into an ordeal.

The breakthrough came at a time when Steve really needed it. His corporate communications business was experiencing some lean times. He was doing one of the most difficult things for most entrepreneurs: making cold calls to prospective clients. He tried calling a company that he thought would be a dream client, an $8 billion healthcare company. Discouraged, he had a vision of this company, and others like it, employing an army of secretaries and receptionists to fend off people like himself. The point is to fight your way through to someone who might be at least slightly receptive.

So Steve was shocked when the first person he reached actually seemed to be glad that he had called. She told him that she thought a particular person would be the right person to talk with, and she put the call through immediately.

Steve was delighted but suspicious. ~{!0~}I thought to myself that this potential client must be absolutely desperate,~{!1~} he says. ~{!0~}She had to have a deadline looming, or someone leaving, or something going on.~{!1~} His suspicions were aroused further when the woman who later became his client actually got on the telephone. She didn~{!/~}t want to see samples of his work. She didn~{!/~}t want to meet him face to face in order to see whether they could work together. What she mostly wanted to know was how much he would charge and how quickly he could start work on a corporate brochure. She hired him during this initial conversation.

Steve had been in business for five years, and this just didn~{!/~}t feel right. ~{!0~}It had never happened before,~{!1~} he says, ~{!0~}and it has never happened since.~{!1~} In some ways, though, it felt good. Steve needed the work. The client didn~{!/~}t quibble with the fees Steve quoted. The client was big and well-known~{!*~}a great addition to his portfolio. Nobody can afford to look a gift breakthrough in the mouth.

Still, even this good news produced anxieties. After the client had agreed to his fees and he had started work, she asked for samples of his work to show to her superiors. Steve thought a well-organized executive would have asked for the samples and had the internal politics in place before making a commitment. ~{!0~}I just felt there was something queer about this procedure,~{!1~} he says.

He went ahead and did the brochure. She told him she loved it. The brochure was printed and Steve was paid. Steve learned that his client was empowered to make important decisions, so he pitched her a more ambitious ongoing job~{!*~}a newsletter that could be circulated to 20,000 pharmacies throughout the US.

She thought it was a great idea. She met Steve for lunch and told him to prepare a slide presentation to sell his idea. He did so, and he waited for a response. And he waited some more. Then he sent emails that went unanswered, and made calls that were never returned. ~{!0~}I was getting angry,~{!1~} Steve said. ~{!0~}She is a flake. Her behavior is unprofessional.~{!1~}

Finally, after weeks of this, he reached her on the phone, and she spoke as if there had been no delay in returning the call. She was enthusiastic about the newsletter, she said. And she invited him to lunch again. She wanted to add a writer familiar with pharmacy retailing, and a graphic designer whose work Steve didn~{!/~}t admire.

The four-page annual newsletter he had proposed was metamorphosing into a 36-page glossy magazine to be published several times a year. Steve began to see visions of major new revenues and an expanded business. The team went to work on the first issue, and once that was brought to its final stage of production before printing, began work on the second. Things were moving so fast on this project that Steve turned down another, well-paying project from an older, smaller client so that he could focus on this high-profile assignment.

Then, just as the first issue was about to go to press, things took a turn for the worse. The huge company was about to be absorbed by an even larger one. Because there were antitrust issues, everything was thrown into limbo. As in all mergers, employees were understandably fearful that they would lose their jobs, and were afraid to commit to decisions. But due to the possibility that the government would stop the merger, this period of uncertainty dragged on and on. Finally, the merger was canceled, and the president of the company even commissioned Steve to write the letter that went out over the president~{!/~}s signature to customers and shareholders explaining what had taken place.

Even when the crisis was resolved, the first issue of the new magazine was delayed month after month. Steve had slowed his work on the second issue, and finally after about four months of uncertainty, word came from the client to stop work. Then she dropped out of sight again, failing to return calls or emails. Steve learned, through the rumor mill, that she was going through an extremely ugly divorce. During the trial, her husband threatened in open court to kill her. ~{!0~}I have great sympathy for the woman,~{!1~} he says. ~{!0~}She was going through hell.~{!1~}

He still felt that she ought to have returned his calls. It wouldn~{!/~}t have been difficult for her to tell him that the projects had simply been canceled. But it preyed on Steve~{!/~}s mind that she was simply showing him no respect whatsoever. He later found that an out-of-state advertising agency was getting the business she had once given him.

This wasn~{!/~}t really a disaster for Steve. He was paid for nearly all the work he did. He added a prestigious name to his client list. It would have been better if he hadn~{!/~}t turned down other work, but his injury was less financial than emotional. He was hoping so much that the breakthrough was real. He allowed his mental state to be dictated by the obviously erratic behavior of the client. His relationship with the client began in anxiety and ended in insult. But only in retrospect can one see that the casual way in which the client hired Steve mirrors the cavalier way in which she cast him aside.

What, then, should Steve have done? Nobody would argue that his niggling insecurities at the outset should have told him to forgo the opportunity. Perhaps his mistake was to make this assignment too important in his own mind. ~{!0~}I fell into the trap of thinking that the project would become self-funding and safe,~{!1~} he says. There are few things that cause more anxiety than the aspiration to safety; suddenly everything life throws at you jeopardizes your illusion of security.

~{!0~}There is nothing I could have done,~{!1~} says Steve. ~{!0~}It all had nothing to do with the quality of my work. It had nothing to do with me.~{!1~} Nevertheless, he did learn that the magic, effortless good fortune we all hope for can often bring even more abundant and intense anxieties than does the daily grind of trying to stay in business.

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Article Tags: army, breakthrough, cold calls, communications business, corporate brochure, corporate communications, dream client, first person, healthcare company, initial conversation, job, lean times, long time, ordeal, prospective clients, receptionists, secretaries, suspicions



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