Working in any creative field will often times mean encountering people that either take themselves a bit too seriously, feel entitled, or maybe even ones that are just crazy. Some accept this as a fact of life, effectively empowering and enabling this behavior. “Oh well he’s a genius, so he can act like that,” or “well he is the manager of this powerful band, so it comes with the territory, and what am I going to do?”. I will tell you what you can do: you can walk away and decide to not work with people that don’t treat you with the same respect you treat them with. Life is too short.
Whether you’re a creative or a business person, you’re already working in a field that requires a lot of sacrifice, long hours, little pay, and possibly a massive delay of gratification. You might as well have fun and work only with amazing people. There’s plenty of those! For every asshole, there are two great people out there working hard. That includes the people at the top, even if sometimes it doesn’t seem that way.
Investor Brad Feld shared a life rule in his recent “Reflections On Turning 46″, which coincidentally has been a ground rule at Family Records from the start.
No Assholes: I’ve worked really hard to get to a place where I get to spend almost all of my time with people who I want to spend time with. I’ve been able to do this while figuring out how to engage with lots of new, interesting people all the time. I’m going to work even harder at this at 46 – more great people, no assholes.
You have a choice about who you work with. Even if you’re just starting out, and even if you convinced yourself that you don’t. If you encounter an asshole, or if someone evolves into one, then you can choose what to do. Make a smart choice with the long term in mind. Your results are going to be better if you’re working with great people. You’ll be happier, which also leads to better results. It’s not a very hard choice when you think about it.