But I am not sure I have always acted that way.
When you have put a large part of yourself into your work, the distance between these two thoughts can become uncomfortably small:
“He does not want to buy this.”
and
“He does not think I am good enough.”
Of course, these are two entirely different statements.
The client may reject the price, the timing, the product or the idea.
He might even be right.
None of that says very much about the worth of the person on the other side of the table.
Yet I suspect many entrepreneurs know this feeling.
Perhaps one reason we overdesign, over-service and struggle to charge properly is that somewhere inside we are still trying to make sure nobody can say no.
I have been learning that he is allowed to say no. Sometimes that is even more interesting, because then you can ask: Why? Is it the price, the design, the timing? And that creates an opportunity to learn.
It is strangely liberating.