The No A**holes Rule

A couple of years ago we were surveying our clients to find out why they chose us. One was an enterprise-level, world-renowned organization that always had the big-time consulting firms knocking on their doors and yet they kept picking us instead.

Our contact gave us some great feedback, then paused and said:

“Plus, you guys aren’t a**holes.”

Because Life is Too Short 

We have a PG version of that saying we use during hiring, onboarding clients, and choosing our vendors and partners. Our “Life is Too Short Rule” means that we spend 40 or 50 hours a week working, there isn’t a price worth dealing with jerks during those hours.

Years ago, I went to my boss and mentor with an idea for a new product line. I was newly minted in my role of uncovering and managing strategic alliances. I had done my research, I validated the market, our sales team was ready. The idea looked so promising.

But the partner vendor we needed to make this work was a Class A Jerk. I went to my boss and presented all the data. He paused and said “Yeah, but isn’t so-and-so a nightmare to work with?”

“Yes,” I responded, “but for the revenue we make we should be willing to work with him.”

“Sorry,” he answered. “This doesn’t pass the Life is Too Short Rule. There aren’t enough zeroes in the world to work with this guy.”

But I Have Bills To Pay

You would think I would have learned from the guidance of my much more experienced mentor, but I was young, arrogant, and thought I could figure it out.

In our Webbed Marketing days we even coined the phrase “Future Ex-Client”, a term we used when we signed on a new client whom we knew was a jerk. We would justify the contract with financial reasons “We can do raises with this!”, “Quarterly tax payments are coming up!”, “This will really help cover healthcare!” 

Inevitably, the client would be the nightmare we expected. The team would hate working with them. They pulled us away from the good clients. The relationship would end in flames, shouting, unpaid invoices, and the occasional threat of lawsuits.

Yeah, lesson learned. Definitely not enough zeroes.

Let Them Bankrupt Someone Else

This same mentor then served as an advisor on my first successful business. I was meeting with him to talk about a client that was generating a respectable amount of revenue and could become our biggest client. 

This client was also crude, crass, offensive, and void of any ethics. 

“What will the client do if you fire them?” he asked.

“They will go to our competitor,” I answered. That thought terrified me. I thought the client would pay a bunch of money to our competitor, giving our competitor more money to hire, train, and grow talent.

“Great!” my mentor said. “Let them go bankrupt your competitor.”

That Goes for the Team Too

You get a break from a bad client, but a bad co-worker, especially in a small business or close department is just always there. When I talk to people who, every Sunday night, regret going back to the office Monday morning, the root of the problem is usually another co-worker. 

I’ve made that bad hire before. Often the justification is something like “yeah, they are a little obnoxious but they can really [sell, code, analyze]. Inevitably, disaster ensues. I’ve had to fire people that were great at their jobs. I’ve had to fire salespeople who generated a seemingly irreplaceable amount of revenue. I’ve had to fire people who left big holes in our skill sets.

And in every case I wish I had made the decision to fire much sooner than I did. 

Name a Price for Your Happiness

If you’re reading this you are probably a business owner or leader and cringe when your niece, nephew or kid tells you that they are leaving a job they love to go to a job they don’t really want because they are getting $5,000 more in salary. You may even say something like, “So you are willing to take $5,000 to be unhappy? You literally are putting a price on your happiness?”

Then you go into your office and sign a hundred thousand dollar contract with a client who will make you and your team miserable because you imagine what your business can do with that $100k. The scale may be different, but the result is the same. 

You are letting someone pay you to be unhappy. 

Play the Long Game

We are blessed at Futurety. We don’t have any investors or a holding company requiring a certain percentage of quarterly growth at any cost. We can play the long game, sacrificing a month or quarter of profits for the long term financial success of our company. I have learned first hand that happy team members and happy clients result in long term financial success. The short game of taking any client with a check and any team member who can do the job is a recipe for a trainwreck and a failed business.

There seems to be a national conversation debating whether nice guys really finish last. Politics and popular entertainment can glorify being the bad guy. The narrative of the cutthroat business person who takes any deal, uses up employees, and steamrolls anyone who gets in the way couldn’t be further from the truth I see in the most successful leaders. Not only has the Life’s Too Short Rule led to their financial success, but it has also led to a fundamentally happier and more fulfilling life.