Desperation kills. If you’re desperate, it shows. It shows your belief in needing something and it looks simply terrible. Desperation shows weakness, and that’s when you get pushed and taken advantage of the most. What do you think will happen if you normally price your designs at $300, never get hired, drop your price in a promotion to $150 (cut them in HALF), and you finally get a client to even ask you how much you charge. The client won’t hire you for $200, they’ll bargain it down, using your desperation against you, probably cutting it in half to $100. Why do you agree? Why do you cut your price in the first place? If you can’t get hired for the price you think is right, then that means you have some knowledge to catch up on. If you don’t have a portfolio, you have to make one, and in the meantime experiment with your creativity, new effects, new styles – everything.
The attitude of “I have to get this, you have to hire me because I need this!” is the worst possible thing to get trapped in.
I’ve been there. I call it being in The Shit.
There’s no cure except to go through it. Trouble is, for some people (ooh, me! me! me!), it can make you mean. You see the cruel side of people in power. You discover people who you thought were friends never were. Forget the disappointment, forget the disillusionment. The worst part, worse than the humiliation ever could be, is the self-realization that you’ve been a dope before stepping into The Shit. Reality wasn’t what you thought it was. You’ve been walking around the fucking Holodeck!
Just wanted to throw that in. What? You expected some wise advice? Feh!
Mike Cane's Blog 