Unreasonable demands warrant blunt responses.

A young man called me. He didn’t want to call me. It was Friday. Friday is for vanishing, not confrontation. He persisted throughout the preceding week in sending emails, hoping someone on our end would engage. No one did. Not our customer service manager. Not our operations manager. Not our business/office manager. Without exception, all directed the young man to me.

Options reduced to one, he finally capitulated and called me. He was audibly nervous. He talked fast. When I was allowed the (rare) opportunity to reply, he cut me off and talked over my answer. The ensuing word jumble accomplished nothing. In exasperation, I finally admonished him, “You know, studies show that a conversation works optimally when the first party speaks and the second listens, after which the roles reverse. Can we try that as an experiment in achieving better communication?” He seemed reluctant. He kept on speaking nervously. Clearly, he did not appear comfortable with the message he was assigned to deliver.

The names may change, but the (unwanted) pitches stay the same.

An unwanted constant in my life is weekly unsolicited queries, like this:

Hey Robert,

With just one signature, I could wire you $10,000,000 if you were willing to sell your company.

I sent you an email Wednesday explaining that we have set aside $100,000,000 to buy electrical companies.

We’ve already bought five companies from this fund and we expect to spend the entire $100,000,000 by the end of 2024.

To find out how much your company is worth and receive an offer of $10 million or more before our fund runs out, please book a call with the link provided below.

Best,
Chad

Engineering ain’t free – even if (when) would-be customers think it should be.

Small. Size doesn’t matter.

Until it does.

Small companies and startups are often the worst: Junior Dictators consuming time in inverse proportion to the worth of their project. Much of that vaporized time has little relation to the technical specifics of the project in question.

As if they care.

Because the customer is always right (to monopolize everyone’s time).

So the micromanager’s ballet begins.

A striking lesson in leverage against a larger opponent.

The worst part is the silence. Experience says silence means they have nothing but bad news to report, and they’re afraid to report it. The technique is notably effective when conveyed (or not because it’s silent) across 10 or more time zones, thereby avoiding real time confrontation. Silence seldom means anything good.

So they say nothing. Employing the time-tested method of patient endurance, they expect by saying nothing that attention will be diverted inevitably, enabling the problem to magically go away. Just like politicians’ common practice, taking a dim view of voters’ average intelligence and grasp of the facts. People have short attention spans. They know that. They count on it.

The problem never goes away. Receivables still age until they’re settled. You have to push. They need to know that you know. Otherwise, they wait it out, and the silence, their friend, prevails. Notch one more for them. And you’re still not paid.