Are You Proud of What You Do? I Am. You Should Too.
The perhaps most important factor at work, independent of industry or kind of employment, is pride. Are you sure? How that?
You have to be proud of what you do in order to create value and be happy.
Zen Buddhists and other spiritual beings not of this world will tell you that pride is not good though. It depends. You need a healthy dose of it.
Politicians will tell you that you should be humble and be satisfied with what you have. They will insist that you should be proud of your country instead even when you get treated like “human resources”.
There is one kind of pride which is indispensable though, the “you are what you do“-kind of pride.
Many people for instance approach me with prejudice or sometimes even some kind of disgust for what I do, mostly of out their own ignorance.
Is SEO a dirty word?
While others regard SEO as some kind of dirty work – yes even SEOs themselves do it – thus they call themselves black hat SEOs, I don’t. The hats are black so that you don’t see the stains.
At the end of the day they might be able to buy more than I can but when their kids ask them what they do to earn money they will cringe or outright lie.
When my 5 year old daughter asked me what kind of work I do I explained to her with pride that
I help people finding stuff or being found on the Internet which is so huge that otherwise people would get lost.
Thus I ask you, are you proud of what you do for a living? You can ask yourself the following 10 questions to determine that:
- Do you hesitate when asked at a party what you do for a living?
- Do you use a job title that does not really reflect what you do?
- Do you want to tell others what yo do by yourself?
- Would you write a blog about what you do professionally?
- Do you define your status a) by the things you do or b) by the things you buy?
- Do you want your kids to do the same job you do in future, can you recommend it to them?
- Do your friends (real friends not virtual ones) recommend you as a specialist in your trade?
- Do you want to explain your trade to others?
- Are you so proud of your achievements that you want to display them?
- In case you could choose your profession again, would you take the same a second time?
The right answers are no, no, yes, yes, a), yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! I hope you have at least 5 correct answers.
One day I was approached by an international company from Scandinavia. The CEO (not SEO!) ;-) approached me by himself. He was in a constant hurry, I guess many CEOs are.
We talked very soon and he told me that he likes my style of presenting myself and he looks for a SEO who is 110% white hat.
The curious case of the strange client expectations
I told him that I’m 200% white hat – which is true – and that because of this I am the right man for him. Then he told me a few things that made me suspicious though:
- He works with 20 other SEO companies all over Europe and elsewhere, well, nice to meet someone who knows what SEO is about [I thought]
- He will send me his contract, well, OK with me
- He wants me to review the contract and reply ASAP (meaning next day, as he understood it), I will as soon as possible but that doesn’t mean instantly
- The contract should be OK “for a white hat SEO”, well, so no problem with me here or is it?
- He wanted me to work parallel or together with another German SEO company, well, others wouldn’t but I’m more into cooperation than competition
- He wants to make millions after one year while he wants to pay me by the hundreds, well, hmmm, I’ll have to take a second look, sounds strange
- He wants to pay 15 hours but he wants me to work 30, 50 or 50 hours in the first month so that he can see results, well, hell no, I won’t do that, sorry, I told him
OK, I reviewed the contract and what did I see?
For the little money I would have to guarantee a full refund for almost any circumstances of not working according to fuzzy “industry standards”, while the contract reserved almost no rights for me.
I wasn’t allowed to let anybody help me to do the work, I had to return or delete any data after the project ended.
I would have to work clandestinely and wouldn’t be even allowed to mention the client in my portfolio among other cruelties.
I had already collected two pages of annotations to this “contract” when I realized that I was furious as how somebody can even approach me in such a disrespectful manner.
What’s most ludicrous: Basically the cost to let my lawyer rewrite this contract to fit even my most basic needs would probably excel what I would earn before taxes for the first month.
Pride and prejudice
Pride is also the most important factor in gaining respect and becoming an authority. Nobody will ever believe you when you don’t believe in yourself.
I learned to be proud of myself the hard way but in my thirties I know who I am and I’m proud of what I do so you can’t approach me in a condescending manner.
When you treat me like a dog I will bark at you. I will even bark so loud that all the other underdogs will hear me.
As nobody knows on the Web that you are a dog though you don’t have to behave like one. Be proud of what you do or change it. Do not let people disrespect you out of low self-esteem.
I don’t care who you are when you approach me. I want to know what you do and how you do it so that I know if I can be proud of working with you.
I do not want to hide working for you and I do not want to be treated like “human resources”. Treat me in a respectful manner so we will both prosper.
In fact I reject probably more clients than I work for in the end and I will reject even more in future as I get renown beyond Germany recently.
In case you want human resources go to SEO India! When you seek SEO Germany don’t offend me. It’s expensive here.
It’s not just about the money
It’s also not about the money you spend. The other day a sound designer called me saying that he only has 100 Euro (approx 150$) to spend.
I told him no problem I can sell him some consulting on the phone to enable him to optimize his site himself.
He told me that he masters HTML or I can set up an XML sitemap etc. for “search engine submission” for instance.
The chance that you can work with me is even better for small business as I wouldn’t work for most corporations anymore anyway, for ethical reasons.
When I can’t be proud of what I do I won’t do it. Are you proud of what you do? Do you sell yourself for cheap?
Last updated: June 6th, 2018.
I LOVE what you tell your little person. Me, I’m still trying to convince my little people that I don’t work for Google, and I don’t work for WordPress ;)
But it is an interesting point that you make.
While most clients have a demand list that goes on and on, very few are willing to accept that we too have standards (usually higher than theirs). Boy what I’d give to offer up my demand list:
Don’t change the specs on me half way through
If you are going to pay me to offer advice – USE it
When I tell you that things need to happen in a particular order, it means you need to do them – in that order
Don’t bitch and moan at me that it didn’t work if you are not going to bother doing what I recommend
Don’t tell me that other SEOs will guarantee top ranking in Google – I don’t, I can’t, and I won’t.
Don’t hold back a portion of my fee because you don’t get results in a week
And the one I would LOVE to include but never will because I am just too nice :)
I know more about the Web than you ever will so be nice to me… :-p
BTW – sorry for the rant…
I am very proud of what I do, but I think I need to start standing up for myself a little more rather than just accepting that the client is always right…
I absolutely love that explanation you gave to your 5-year old. Wonderful! :-) My son isn’t quite to the age he is asking that kind of question (only 4) — but I’m going to have to remember that one. You’ve highlighted I think, the nobility in being an SEO.
I love doing what I do. Helping guys achieve more in the dating realm is definitely fulfilling.
I love doing what I do as well both full-time and part-time.
As for the story about the CEO and his “contract”, you gotta wonder how many people have blindly signed agreements with him only to be burned later.
Great post.
I like how you explained it to your 5 year old, very uplifting.
I also answered the same as you for all the questions.
That client is just horrible. We should be proud of what we do, and hence have standards that we stand by as well as disrepect that we should not tolerate either.
lid: No problem. I started the rant. It’s like you say, you have to make clients aware of the fact that you are not their subordinate, employee or whatever.
Mark: Thank you for the kind words.
DD: Especially as most guys are really bad at it without schooling.
Chanya: Sounds great, what exactly do you do? Yeah, I guess some people who are not naive enough would sign it.
david: Satisfaction and accomplishment is the the foundation of success.
Brilliant. Thanks.
“If you treat me like a dog I will bark at you. I will even bark so loud that all the other underdogs will hear me…”
That’s very cool. Like that.
great post.. i am so glad that i love my work and i am proud of what i do. very interesting article. i enjoyed reading it.
Of course we need to proud of what we did. however to high pride will cause us become arrogant. This is also not good.
I just wondering that people currently count of what people said about us. For me It is enough to create happy life. I don’t really care of job title and what achievement I got.
In my opinion I don’t need to display my own achievement. because it will not increase my income as internet marketer.
Nice post. Truly nice to meet someone who knows what SEO is all about. Anyways, we guys are totally white hat. I love doing what I do. Thanks again for such a proud post.