Showerthought: the week I said yes to every job taught me more than 4 years of trade school | Career Advice - Freelance Forum - The Community for Independent Professionals
Showerthought: the week I said yes to every job taught me more than 4 years of trade school
Three weeks back I said yes to a panel swap, a rewire, and a hot tub hookup all in 5 days, mostly because I was scared to turn down money. By Thursday I was so fried I nicked a live wire in a house off Route 9 and it threw me across the basement, scared the daylights out of me. Nothing bad happened but I sat in my truck for 20 minutes asking myself why I never learned to just say no to some jobs. How do you all figure out which work to turn down when the phone keeps ringing?
The part nobody talks about is how saying yes to everything slowly kills your name in the trade. One bad job from being fried and word gets around that you do sloppy work, and then the good calls stop coming anyway. Turning stuff down is really you protecting the reputation that keeps the phone ringing.
That line about sitting in your truck for 20 minutes really got me. I've had that exact moment, just staring at nothing, hands still shaking, wondering what the hell I was doing out there. Getting thrown across a basement is no small thing, man. It sounds like your body was trying to tell you something your brain had been ignoring for a while. The fear of turning down money is real, especially when you're the one who has to make the bills. But you can't spend money if you're not around to spend it. Sounds like that week taught you a lesson no classroom ever could.