Better to do it right the first time

Something I’ve said in this newsletter many times is this idea of “one strike and you’re out.” It’s a mentality that I’ve tried more and more to incorporate into my business and life in general.

What it means is to approach a project, an interview, whatever the case may be with the mindset of “I’ve got one chance to do this right, I need to make it count.”

Now I’ve had varying degrees of success with this. I can’t claim that I’ve been the picture of success with it – but that thought in the back of one’s mind does tend to create a bit of urgency in whatever they undertake.

Such was not the case with a fellow I hired a couple of weeks ago to edit some interviews I did while in Vietnam for the Trumpet Dynamics show. I was feeling a little bit behind with everything going on with relocating, getting back into the swing of things with my boy, so I thought I might save some time by having this person I’ve hired before to edit them.

It turns out I went against my better judgment in doing so. Those episodes are special to me, as they’re my own show and I like to get them “just right”. I do give them just a wee bit more attention than those of my clients as you might expect.

(And for my clients reading this, I didn’t skimp on your show with the relocation. This is a passion project I’m talking about that brings in zero revenue at the moment.)

So I was expecting these interviews to be not exactly what I would have done myself, but I was willing to just go with it and drive on. Better to publish something that’s less than perfect than not publish anything at all, right?

Well, I took one of the interviews this fellow had edited to do the show notes, get it ready for publishing, etc. and quickly realized his work was actually really bad. It was clear he had worked on them, but the work was sloppy to say the least. We’re talking major problems with spacing, flow, filler words, etc., and I taught this cat the craft so he knows what I expect in editing a podcast. I mean, I was expecting a few things to be a bit different than what I would do, but this was something I couldn’t publish with my name attached to it.

So on a Thursday afternoon, while my boy played games on my iPhone, I edited this guy’s work to the tune of 3 hours to get it done the way I want it done.

I let this fellow know in no uncertain terms that I was not pleased with his work, and that his services would not be required for the remainder of the interviews I sent him. He replied, basically begging to let him do it again, that he’ll do whatever it takes to get it right.

In so many words I told him my answer was final, that he could have had that attitude the first time and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

Oh, and he billed me for the episode I complained about. Nice touch there, sport.

Such is life in solopreneurland, right?

Big picture is that I lost 3 hours of my life I’ll never get back, my son will recover from this setback in his development as a human being nicely, and all is still basically sound in the Land of Newcomb.

So I’m not writing this to complain as much as just make the observation that it’s still true to take the extra time to do things right the first time, and you’ll avoid the unpleasantness of having to do things a second time.

Things just work out better, don’t they?

James Newcomb

P.S. I apologize to anyone reading who has had issues accessing the content within my mobile app. It’s kind of advanced technology that I admit I’m having a hard time keeping up with. If you’ve subscribed to this newsletter because I advertised the mobile app, and had issues of any sort accessing the app, kindly reply to this email and let me know what issues you’re having. There’s really good stuff in there, and it’s a shame people aren’t able to get in 😉