How to Work with Everyone: Don’t.
I wrote an email to a potential client a few days ago.
“I have to be honest with you about my short-comings. I can’t work with a boring person.”
Luckily I felt excited to set up a Zoom call with him, so that wasn’t a problem. But after I sent him the email, I regretted it immediately.
It wasn’t for this email but for what I could’ve done last year.
If I could’ve listened to my gut feeling, I could’ve avoided getting into trouble. When I saw my ex-employer’s website for the first time, I was like, “Ohhh my Buddha! I can’t believe they are doing this shit! This is just so f***ing dumb! They definitely need my help!”
Not. At. All.
Why? Zain Rizvi explained it brilliantly in his article.
User-focused design is wasteful. Every business knows this, but they're afraid to admit it. What's their dark secret? They focus on the people who pay them.
Naive I was. I was thinking of the end-users of the website. I was not thinking about actual buyers. In my case, my manager. He had no interest in what visitors to the website thought. All he asked for was a robotic translation, not an improved user experience I proposed.
Looked from this way, their website’s terrible user experience made complete sense. It was what it was for a reason.
I should’ve taken a cue from their first impression. They sucked because they wanted to.
It reminds me of a quote by Benito Juarez, the first Mexican president of indigenous descent.
El respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz.
My interpretation goes like this:
Respect for the rights of others means peace.
Exactly. Everyone has a right to remain a stupid ass. If he so chooses, I should respect his right.
Case closed and lesson learned.
I have a whole different world of cool people to spend time with :)
