[Lessons From a Crazy Monster-Client Story] Past Events Get Glorified Even When They Were Awful

From ACIDHOUSE, INC., this is Tetsuya Ashida.

I found this post on LinkedIn.

Right after I handed over my business card, it was suddenly torn up.
And I was told this:
"You think a youngster like you can handle our account?! They must really be underestimating us."

I was in my late twenties, but since I was involved as a professional carrying the company's name, I couldn't just silently accept it and back down, so swallowing my frustration, I handed over a new card, saying, "I'm sorry for the soiled business card."

That company contact was a very strict person with a strong sense of professionalism, but to me it felt as though I was constantly being tested on what it means to be a professional, and I struggled desperately without giving up, wanting somehow to see it through to the end and meet their needs.

• Don't ask the same questions as the previous person in charge.
• Properly hand over internally anything that's been answered once.
• Make your questions short and easy to understand.
• Act with awareness of our workload too.
• Explain the points you raise so that they can be understood.
• Show properly what you're basing your statements on.

And so on — I was told all sorts of things, and for a whole year I spent my days thinking about the intent behind each one and putting it to use the next day.

One day, after I had somehow made it through the year, I got a call from the company contact.
"I'm sorry for my rude attitude back then and for testing you. I'm being transferred, but I'm really glad you were the one in charge. Thank you." I still can't forget the indescribable joy I felt when I heard that.

It's easy to give up, saying it's no good or there's no point, but work is something full of things you can't know until you try, and I think it's interesting precisely because, beyond trying, there are hardships and joys you've never tasted before. And though it's just a single word, being able to do work for which I'm told "thank you" is, I think, a treasure for me.

With what feelings do you all face your work?

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-6791292605490634752-yBki

This episode is from the past experience of the person who made this post.

However, even now, three years into Reiwa, companies whose "common sense, mood, habits, and behavior are all smack in the middle of Showa" still exist in large numbers, and there is every possibility that similar cases still happen today.

I belong to the generation right in the middle of the employment ice age, and I have felt things were unreasonable at work more than once or twice.

Fortunately, I now have my own company and business and can work and live at my own pace in comfort, but as I looked back on various things and gathered information from overseas, I realized how abnormal working conditions at Japanese companies are.

I hope to present the full picture on my blog so readers can use it to avoid the same fate, and I can only hope working conditions become even a little healthier in a Japanese society whose future isn't very bright; this time, I'll explain what the problems are in this episode, how things should be now, what it all really means, and so on.

Make clients with no class vanish from your sight

Right after I handed over my business card, it was suddenly torn up.

Normally you'd think "handing over a business card and having it suddenly torn up" is a declaration of war.

After all, far from observing the creepy business-card-exchange etiquette drilled into you in Japanese society, they committed an act of destruction.

If it were allowable as a human being, I'd land a right hook on their face and, when they flinched, throw a chair or a desk at them until they cried "please stop" lol (sorry for being extreme...).

And I was told this:
"You think a youngster like you can handle our account?! They must really be underestimating us."

What on earth is this so-called "standard for handling the account"?

What is this arrogance of forcing your own selfish ideal of a business partner onto the business partner themselves?

No matter how calmly I think about it, "You're the one underestimating people — you, who tear up a business card the moment it's handed to you, you bastard!" is all I can say.

But unlike other animals, humans have the ability to reason, and business can't be done alone, so a minimum of manners toward partners should be respected.

So,

The unproductive guts-and-grit theory the Japanese love

I was in my late twenties, but since I was involved as a professional carrying the company's name, I couldn't just silently accept it and back down, so swallowing my frustration, I handed over a new card, saying, "I'm sorry for the soiled business card."

It gives off a sense of "showing guts" and "trying hard," but that's not a heartwarming story or anything, is it?

If you're inclined to praise this kind of thing, there's a high chance you're steeped in the negative common sense of Japanese society, so I think you'd better fly abroad or experience a NEET lifestyle.

Or rather, business cards get thrown away once the information on them is digitized, and although the situation at the time of this episode was completely different, in the era of telework business cards are almost unnecessary.

The poster just rationalized it because they lacked the courage to quit

That company contact was a very strict person with a strong sense of professionalism, but to me it felt as though I was constantly being tested on what it means to be a professional, and I struggled desperately without giving up, wanting somehow to see it through to the end and meet their needs.

I'm sorry, but this isn't some plausible story of "being constantly tested on what it means to be a professional"; that so-called "company contact" was simply hysterical and foolish.

That's probably how it goes.

In the first place, there's no proof at all that the so-called "company contact" dealing hysterically with the poster was the best way of communicating to draw out concrete business benefits.

Humans are creatures that, when faced with something they can do nothing about, try to justify it after the fact.

You've already failed the moment you do business with a monster client

Also, the world is full of useless bosses who make no real effort to solve things even while their subordinates suffer with monster clients.

I've had bosses like that in the past, too, who tried to settle things with comments anyone could make and that moved nothing forward, like "But you don't have the option of not doing that job...". Useless bosses are just small fry with hardly any authority over transactions, so you should interpret it as having consulted the wrong person.

Now I have the authority over transactions myself, so the moment someone shows the attitude of a monster client, I end the business relationship without mercy.

You could say that the moment you've made a monster client your customer, everything — lead acquisition, negotiations, and the transaction itself — has already failed.

Monster clients mercilessly drag down your productivity, so it's like carrying debt, and it's more rational to quickly go find ideal customers again.

By the way, if your boss, executives, or business owner don't show understanding of this logic, it's a job and company you should quit immediately.

Past events get glorified even when they were awful...

One day, after I had somehow made it through the year, I got a call from the company contact.
"I'm sorry for my rude attitude back then and for testing you. I'm being transferred, but I'm really glad you were the one in charge. Thank you." I still can't forget the indescribable joy I felt when I heard that.

Reading this far, I let out a sigh...

If being told something this trivial briefly over the phone makes you easily wash away all those annoying, troublesome days, that's a piece of cake for a monster client.

Well, the poster is probably a good person, but I can only hope they also realize that in this world, serious, kind-seeming people like them are the ones most easily taken advantage of and most likely to lose out.

And as is clear from the text so far, the poster seems to be fully under the influence of "rosy retrospection bias"...

The future is as you wished it

It's easy to give up, saying it's no good or there's no point, but work is something full of things you can't know until you try, and I think it's interesting precisely because, beyond trying, there are hardships and joys you've never tasted before. And though it's just a single word, being able to do work for which I'm told "thank you" is, I think, a treasure for me.

The post closes with these words, and I think "if you think so, then that's right."

However, the one thing that must absolutely be avoided is

Life is "a huge number of choices lined up in chronological order, which you process one by one."

Finding those choices and deciding which one to actually choose differs from person to person, but isn't the very fact that the poster believed a treasure lay beyond those futile days with the monster client what shaped the outcome?

That's because what people see and what they believe differ from person to person.

If, hypothetically, the poster had written it off as futile and moved on to another client, achieving results far beyond anything possible with the monster client, it would be right to call that a treasure—and it would also be right if it didn't become one.

Well, it's certain that my way of facing work is completely different from this poster's lol