{"id":3360,"date":"2016-03-17T10:00:17","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T14:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/?p=3360"},"modified":"2016-03-11T17:19:04","modified_gmt":"2016-03-11T22:19:04","slug":"the-weight-of-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/2016\/03\/the-weight-of-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"The Weight of Failure"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"CC<\/a>

CC Harri Webb via Flickr<\/p><\/div>\n

Gravity is greater on Planet Freelance than on Planet Employee, and failure is heavier for a freelancer than for a company employee. During 20 years of employment in organizations and companies, I rarely experienced failure to a degree with consequences. Working in an organization, one is supported by strong leaders, mentors, and colleagues when taking risks. If the results don’t meet the target, then the team together shoulders the responsibility. In an organization, typically, successes far outnumber failures.\u00a0The overall accomplishments of the organization are its hallmark.<\/p>\n

Unlike a workplace where colleagues are in the same culture with tacitly understood professional practices, freelancers have separate \u201cvirtual cultures\u201d with each client. This brings in to play a series of varying expectations from relationship to relationship. It\u2019s important in these instances to set expectations for clients so that misunderstandings can be avoided and measurements can be taken with the same stick. In reality, however, such preparations often fail.<\/p>\n

As the sole proprietor of the business, the failure lands squarely with you. Now, it is reasonable to ask: \u201cWhat about the client? Aren\u2019t they also responsible for the success of communication and understandings? It takes two, right?\u201d Yes, I think \u2018it takes two\u2019, but ultimately it\u2019s my business and reputation that will succeed or fail, and so I bear the responsibility.<\/p>\n

Let me put it this way: You may remember in the mid-\u201890s there was a battle (no pun intended) between the soprano Kathleen Battle and The Metropolitan Opera. Miss Battle, a great talent, committed a series of \u201cunprofessional actions\u201d during performance preparations at The Met; such as not showing up for rehearsal after the schedule had been changed to suit her,\u00a0being \u201cvery nasty\u201d to other cast members and telling other singers to leave the stage when she was singing. After efforts taken by The Met\u2019s powerful and skilled management to resolve the situation and getting no functional cooperation, The Met dismissed Miss Battle, and the chorus and crew cheered. The general tone was that Miss Battle deserved it, and maybe so. But, I remember hearing a radio interview in which a spokesperson for The Met considered the fallout to be their failure to keep the relationship together. This made a lasting impression on me.<\/p>\n

I consider it my responsibility that my client relationships succeed. If there is a misunderstanding or even an \u2018out of left field\u2019 request from a client, it\u2019s for me to manage the situation. If the client lacks the business experience I have, I need to cover that ground on their side and assist them, even in negotiation with me. That\u2019s the heavier weight of responsibility that rests with the sole proprietor.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gravity is greater on Planet Freelance than on Planet Employee, and failure is heavier for a freelancer than for a company employee. During 20 years of employment in organizations and companies, I rarely experienced failure to a degree with consequences. Working in an organization, one is supported by strong leaders, mentors, and colleagues when taking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":3362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[679,23],"tags":[497,705],"coauthors":[704],"class_list":{"0":"post-3360","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-failure","8":"category-stories-from-the-field","9":"tag-failure","10":"tag-freelance","11":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3360"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3364,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3360\/revisions\/3364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3360"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}