Seth Godin on who you work for...

Seth posted an awesome note about being careful who you work for; not just your boss, but your clients as well:

Years ago, when I had ten people working for me at my book packaging company, one client accounted for about half our revenue. They were difficult, constantly threatening litigation, sending lawyers to otherwise productive meetings, questioning our ethics and more. It was clearly the culture of their organization to be at war. So I fired them. I gave them the rights and walked away, even though it meant a huge hit to our organization. Why do it? Because if we had stuck with them, it would have changed who we were, who we hired and how we marketed ourselves going forward. We would have had a lifetime of this.

Of course it matters who you work for, but I think it matters even more that you're aware of the potential influence they have. You can't always work in Pleasantville, and I think I'd kill myself if I did, but self-awareness and the aspects of your business that you allow to seep in are key to not only enjoying your job but to progressively growing your role. We aren't all lucky enough to be best friends with our coworkers (okay, I am) but recognizing the positive and the negative of each person, filtering out the bad and aggregating the good into one mold that you're always striving to fill can be a great way to deal with all of the personality types in your office.

Or, you can just keep jumping ship; let me know how that goes.


bk