I was thinking about this the other day. Have I ever let a customer down? Have I ever damaged a client? The answer is that there have only been a few mistakes that I have made in my life that cause a tiny financial damage to clients. Perhaps the worst case might have been US$50 which is comparitively nothing. However, I have cost myself a lot of money. And the financial losses came from bad business decisions that resulted from attachments.
If I have been working with someone for a long time, my tendency was to continue with them no matter if they wanted to go farther, if they were capable, or if they didn’t have the right people for the right job. My loyalty or attachment kept me dealing with people who might have been right in the past for certain tasks, but were not necessarily right in the future. I felt like I was committing adultery to use other service providers for tasks that they did. What I learned is that at particular companies, there are some employees who did miraculous work, and others who simply were not worth working with at all.
On one deal, I probably paid US$10,000 more than I would have if I had found a better programmer at some other company. I didn’t realize that the programmer was on their way down and going through some personal issues. The personal issues effected that person’s work. I saw the warning signs but ignored them because I was loyal to that company.
My new strategy is to realize how much there is to lose by letting emotions get in the way. I now have an algorithm to calculate who to hire and why. Loyalty gets 5 points, but not a fraction of a point more. Loyalty has its place, but can not be blown out of proportion.
My advice is — don’t make mistakes by clinging on to your habits, and clinging on to providers that you are comfortable with — make decisions based on a complicated integration of information and calculations instead!
You might need a PhD to understand what I just said. I’m not sure if even I understand what I just said!