A few minutes ago, I made the always difficult decision to fire one of our new advertisers. Let me be clear – I loathe the idea of losing a sponsor especially one that we’d worked pretty hard to secure, but at the end of the day it had to be done.
During a b-school class, one of my professors talked about how he’d walk from a business deal if things went even a little poorly at the start, because if it went poorly at the start, it was certain to be a pain in the ass throughout the process. The idea seemed overly judgement at the time, but having seen a number of – man this proposal was tough, God this project is shit – consulting assignments go sideways. And personal relationships that ended up burning me after a “rocky” start, I started to see the wisdom.
While I’m not a huge believer in mystic stuff, I do believe in situational karma. Good karma at the start normally means good karma throughout, but bad karma – oh baby watch out.
I hate the idea that the relationship is probably burned.
I hate the fact I have to send the money back.
I hate that we don’t get to promote their products to our readers because they do have good products.
But what I don’t hate is the very real possibility that I’ve avoided a whole world of bullshit from a company that doesn’t really understand what’s important and what isn’t.
