{"id":669,"date":"2017-01-20T15:52:57","date_gmt":"2017-01-20T21:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/walkingstickdesign.com\/?p=669"},"modified":"2017-01-20T15:52:57","modified_gmt":"2017-01-20T21:52:57","slug":"lessons-from-an-angry-millionaire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/walkingstickdesign.com\/lessons-from-an-angry-millionaire\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons From An Angry Millionaire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lessons From An Angry Millionaire<\/span><\/h2>\n

Wow! Do I have a weird story for you today! On Wednesday, I got\u00a0a random call during the afternoon that\u2019s usually from a telemarketer. I answer my phone and an older gentlemen begins talking. He tells me he has some documents he wants to add some clipart to. All without telling me his name, who he works for, or when he needs it.<\/p>\n

Shocked that it\u2019s not a telemarketer, and a little confused, I ask if he\u2019s attempted to use any of the millions of stock art companies that exist as a free<\/strong>\u00a0solution to solve his clipart dilemma. Instead of acknowledging my suggestion, he begins to rattle off even more overly specific information about his project. He says that it\u2019s ten or so documents of about twelve to fifteen pages each and that he wants an image on each page that corresponds to the information.<\/p>\n

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In an effort to clarify what became a firehose of information he was throwing at me I asked that he fill out my creative brief form on my website. Explaining that doing so will help us both see all his project information in one organized place. He said he\u2019d do just that and we both hung up. No big deal right?<\/p>\n

Oh, it was<\/strong>\u00a0a big deal! To him anyway. On Thursday I get a letter in the mail. It\u2019s the web form, printed out. On my form it asks for a ballpark estimate of your budget for the project. Evidentially he didn\u2019t want to fill in that part of the form. The printed web form showed the blank and highlighted \u201cBudget\u201d field which spits out a typical \u201cPlease enter a valid number\u201d message. Ignoring this field on the from is like asking an architect to build you a house without telling them how much or little money you have to build said house.<\/span><\/p>\n

My most favorite part is the little hand written love note he left at the top of the page. It said,<\/p>\n

\u201cClint- You (underlined) have annoyed a multi millionaire! Go read the following books The Millionaire Next Door<\/em> and The Go Giver<\/em>. Thank you.\u201d<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

So yeah, I was a little confused.\u00a0<\/span>This morning I called the guy to get some clarification about the brief. At this point I figured he was old and didn\u2019t understand that he had to fill in a valid number on the \u201cBudget\u201d field for the form to send properly. Man was I wrong!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Folks, this guy was upset! He answered the phone and I politely asked for his help in answering my question about the brief. He then cussed at me and began to tell me how much of a big deal he was and how rude it was for me to \u201cblow him off\u201d on the phone by sending him to my website. <\/span><\/p>\n

I thanked him for the book recommendation and he asks me (in the manner you\u2019d talk to say, your dog) if I read books. I said yes and I mentioned that not only have a read one of the books he suggested but two others by the same author. He made a harumph noise and moved on to his next topic. <\/span><\/p>\n

He tells me that I\u2019ll never be successful if I don\u2019t learn how to treat my customers. And I agreed with him, that successful folks do in fact provide great customer service. At which point he swears and me again and tells me he\u2019s not interested in continuing our call. So, I wished him the best of luck with his project and asked that he have a nice day and he hung up.<\/span><\/p>\n

I can\u2019t make this crap up folks. So, here\u2019s some key thoughts.<\/span><\/h2>\n

Where I went wrong:<\/span><\/h3>\n