On Principles and Money

There have been times in my work life that I've not been able to stand by my principles or stand up for things I believed in. Well, it's not true to say that I've not been able to, a more accurate description is that I haven't been willing to face the consequences of standing by my principles. I could have left the job instead of participating in things I didn't think were right, I could have argued more aggressively against attitudes and policies and risked losing jobs. At the time though leaving/losing those jobs/gigs would have brought serious financial hardship to my house and I chose not to do that.

I'm in a bit of a different boat now. Though I'm always trying to make more money (we are trying to buy a house next year) dropping anyone of my current projects and gigs would not throw us into financial hardship. That of course gives me flexibility with the projects I take and the projects I keep. As I mentioned recently I've been quite busy with work. I've been very lucky to land several projects and gigs this summer that have me excited and passionate. It's turned out to be too much work though and I've had and continue to have to say no to a few new projects that I've wanted to say yes to.

So I've been evaluating all the projects I'm committed to and determining which ones I really want to continue and which ones I want to sign off from. Today I'm signing off from a couple one of which I'd actually planned to continue despite some reservations about it.

Without going into much detail I'll say that I've felt a lack of respect from the project manager both for myself and my abilities but also for the actual work and the community that work is part of. I'd describe this lack of respect at being at a low simmer. It's not at a high boil like a lot of the stuff I dealt with in corporate and other job situations but it's very much there. Also, this gig has brought up serious issues/concerns for me regarding the promotion of me and my work and ownership of ideas. Interestingly enough it's not the respect for me and my work or the issues of personal brand building and idea ownership that have me leaving this particular project. Maybe it's some kind of weird self-esteem thing but I was kind of like "well the disrespect isn't so bad and the money is ok so I should just suck it up and stick it out." So I did. But now the disrespect and disregard for the community at large and the "business first, community later, maybe" attitude have me heading for the door.

Even though I'm heading for that door I haven't actually pulled the trigger yet. In my mind I'm going back and forth over how much money I'll be losing, where the line is between principled and petty and wondering how to do the same good work for the community on my own or perhaps with another organization. In other words I've been second guessing myself for a couple days now. The truth is I've been chickening out on doing what I know is the right thing to do because I don't want to lose the money and I don't want to lose the connections and prestige this gig gives me. 

And then today I see Mike Rhode's sketchnotes from the SEED 3 conference. In particular his sketches from Gary Vaynerchuk's speech. Two quotes in particular stand out
 
"True to what you believe in"

"Brand equity is recession proof"

Wow. Just wow. 

I don't even drink wine but I'm now a Gary Vaynerchuk fan because those two quotes speak directly to my heart today.

Could I put my head down and continue working on this project even though I feel myself and the community aren't appreciated? Could I put my head down and keep working even though the organizational attitude and general lack of good will bothers me deeply? Could I say "in the grand scheme of things your issues with this project don't even rate a second look much less losing money and contacts for." Yeah, I could do that. I could do that but in my heart I know it wouldn't be the right thing to do. In my heart I know that standing up for even small principles, whenever you can, is the right thing to do and truthfully the issues regarding community (damn, I wish I could go into details here) are far more than small principles to me.

So? Trigger pulled. I've got to believe that my finances and my reputation/brand can only benefit from removing myself from a project that I can't believe in and can't feel good about participating in without a boat load of conditional statements.

Image by and copyright Mike Rhode.

Another quote from Rhode's sketchnotes that is so applicable: "Avoid 'partnerships' out to steal your mojo."