by Rachel Smith
09 June 2017
This week, I was talking to a colleague who was having some issues with a client. This particular client has been traditionally difficult, petty and exhausting to work for – but the work they gave my friend made up a large chunk of her earnings. Over several years, she’s rung me to say she’s done, she can’t handle working for this guy anymore. But, like that famous Godfather III quote – just when you think you’re out, they pull you back in!
This time, after the client changed some copy she’d written to alter the meaning of it (and also make it sound worse), my friend had really hit a wall. “I’ve had an epiphany. It just doesn’t feel right working for this person anymore,” she told me. “I have to find some other steady streams of work, still, and I guess that is making me wonder if I’ll regret walking away. What do you think?”
I was quick to reassure her that she’d probably be relieved. And then she’d find great new clients and wonder why she stuck with this bad client for as long as she had. But when you’re in business for yourself, it’s very hard to make that call. Perhaps because we’re scared we won’t be able to plug the gap with new income streams, or we worry (probably quite rightly) that our cash flow will take a hit.
And sure, building a solid, reliable stable of clients and editors who feed you work regularly can be tough. But it’s far worse dealing with a bad client who messes with your mental health, and saps the energy you could be using on opening new doors.
For this reason, I’m a huge fan of listening to epiphanies – in business (but also in love and life in general).
These ‘A-ha!’ moments are like a tap on the shoulder, telling you:
– You want to take your writing or your business in a new direction
– You realise you’re in the wrong job, and you want out
– You need to end a relationship that’s been making you miserable
– That ‘hard-work’ friend, colleague or family member doesn’t have to stay in your life.
I’ve had a few memorable epiphanies in my life. One was in a long-term relationship that needed to end. When the lightbulb moment came, it wasn’t like a tap on the shoulder. It was like a sledgehammer (figuratively speaking). But I’ll never forget that realisation, the incredible relief behind it, and the burst of courage I had to stand up and make a decision that, for the first time in a long time, felt right.
I had another with a job offer early on in my career. It was a time when not much was on offer. And I kept thinking I should take it for that reason and I even accepted it. Then I had an epiphany. It would make me miserable, it would bore me, and I would be crazy if I went through with it. And despite unemployment and the prospect of pissing off my would-be boss, I went back and declined the offer. Instant relief. The right choice at the time.
The other epiphany I had was with a passion project that I was spending a lot of time on (for years on end). It wasn’t really going anywhere, and I kept exploring options, trying things, kidding myself that there’d be a breakthrough if I just did A, B, C, D, E… spiralling right all the way to Z and then back again. One day, I just thought, STOP. No more. And I stopped. I started focusing my time on other things. And again – that sense of relief and joy was palpable. Those feelings told me that this is the right thing to be doing, right, now, for you.
Epiphanies can be great for pushing you onto the path you should be on. Sure, they take courage. It’s not easy to sack a client or leave a bad job (or a bad partner!). But that sense of relief when you do can be so, so sweet. As can the places you go after you leave that not-quite right thing in the past and open up your future to new and fresh possibilities.
What’s been your biggest epiphany?
