Burning bridges
Photo credit: Donna Barber
It can often be tempting to go ballistic on people who are difficult to deal with. A client who provides horrible direction. A vendor who calls more often than you would like. A buyer who doesn't return messages. But mark my words, if you burn that bridge, you will need to cross it again and again throughout your career.
In 20-plus years in marketing, I have made a couple of enemies. My worst offense: On one occasion, I yelled in self-righteous indignation at what I considered someone's dreadful behavior. My outburst happened in the late '90s. To date, they have reappeared five times in my life in five different companies. It is never pretty. The bad behavior deserved to be pointed out. But it served no purpose whatsoever to flip out.
There are very few of us who don't occasionally imagine making a dramatic fireball of a scene. Don't do it. It may feel good for an hour, or a day, but I guarantee that person will be baaaaaack in your life at some point. This is too small a business to make enemies.
