Sometimes you just don’t know. So, you take a chance.
Risks can sometimes pay off. But sometimes they backfire too.
One of the things that keeps me busy is writing articles for a network of music industry sites. I have good days and bad days with it, but for the most part, I love that I get to share my knowledge and expertise with artists and creatives.
This quarter, I started exploring the possibility of working with an assistant or a writing partner.
I figured that an assistant could potentially take 10 hours of work off my hands, freeing me up to do with those 10 hours as I wish.
And with a writing partner, I saw the possibility of dividing and conquering the work, potentially taking on more and bigger clients.
I got into conversation and eventually found a possible fit. It didn’t strike me as being the best fit off the bat (early warning sign), but I was willing to give it a try.
I got the first article from them, and realized I’d left out a crucial detail about the article, namely that it had to be tailored to musicians.
They were unwilling to make any changes and requested the full payment I promised them.
I still ended up having to write most of the article myself, reworking and adding only the parts of their article that worked.
It wasn’t exactly the best start to the business relationship, but there usually is a period of working out the collaboration and establishing necessary structures to fulfill on the work requested.
So, I gave them another go, this time requesting two articles to be written by them.
If you know anything about article writing, you’ll probably know that plagiarism is a big no-no, and it’s something you can easily be found out for nowadays (if you’re in college, don’t think your teachers don’t have tools to check your essay for traces of AI writing!).
They delivered the two articles on time. There were some mistakes in them, and I had to edit and format them myself, but I expected having to do a bit of that work anyway.
Once I delivered the work, though, my client came back to me, citing issues with plagiarism. Oops.
Even though I’d spent a lot of time editing the pieces provided, I didn’t reword enough of it for it to pass plagiarism checkers (either that, or my client has sophisticated spy software, knows when I’m using content other than my own, and is hell bent on having me write every word myself!).
Losing one of my biggest clients would be a blow. I’ll be honest and share I’m certain I would land on my feet, but it would be an inconvenience and a gut punch to say the least.
I’m currently in conversation to see what can be done to resolve this situation and whether the partnership can realistically continue.
But I was reminded of a commitment I’d made to myself this quarter – taking perfect imperfect actions.
It’s a funny term to me, because I believe everything is perfect, even that which is imperfect.
Count on a writer to argue semantics, eh? 😉
Even though what happened wasn’t expected or desired…
This is what being in action looks like. In unfamiliar situations, mistakes will be made. Not everything will go as anticipated.
If you’re making mistakes right now, don’t get discouraged. Keep going. Try again. You’ll learn from your mistakes.
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