In grammar and general conversation, “Always” and “Never” are two words that many point to as being particularly dangerous and to be used very sparingly. Ironically, some go as far as to say that you should never use the words at all.
While there are several good reasons for this, one of the bigger ones is that the use of such words can generate energies that have the potential to create self-fulfilling prophecies. These prophecies can, in turn, either limit or empower people in getting past the roadblocks that affect them. Say what you might about the potential “New Age” spookiness of the concept of “Intention“, but there is actually something to it.
For the uninitiated: The idea simply states that all that is thought or spoken into existence, sooner or later, comes into existence. This is why adages such as the timeless “Where there is a will, there is a way“, or “If you can dream it, you can do it” continue to persist despite comments about being cliched or corny. There are increasing droves of individuals who attribute their fame, fortune, and success to living by and through such principals.
What many fail to understand about this concept, especially the detractors, is that its a two-way street. For example: Consistently speaking into existence the phrase:
I will never find a way out of this dead-end job, situation, relationship.
…would work just as well towards keeping you where you are as consistently speaking into existence the phrase…
I will find a way out of this dead-end job, situation, relationship.
…would work towards you moving you away from where you are.
Despite the one-and-only-one word difference between the two, ‘Never’, that word changed the entire dynamic of the statement. That dynamic has real power to either open or close someone to potential opportunities and chances to improve their condition, depending on which intent they choose.
All of that being said, I think I can say with a fair amount of certainty that there is one “Always” statement, and one “Never” statement, that I can safely apply to my business, Perkitech, that will serve to overall empower my operation and efforts, not diminish them:
Perkitech will ALWAYS be a private company
Perkitech, as a whole, is being charged with a very bold mission: To allow me the freedom to live and work on a schedule that will be dictated moreso by myself than anyone else. That means that it needs to be as much in my hands as possible. That’s not to say that I won’t seek out advice and guidance on issues that I’m unlearned on as needed, but in the end, no one will ever be able to give me anything more than advice. All decisions on what the company does, when it does it, and how it does it, if it even chooses to do “it” at all, will begin and end with me.
Yes, in working for clients, I will agree to certain schedules and deadlines regarding what needs to be done and by when, but that will be on a project-by-project basis and I won’t tolerate being micromanaged to the extent that an employer would feel entitled to put upon me as their employee.
If I negotiate with a client, on the first of a month, to have a job done by the end of the month, then said client will have a very reasonable expectation to see that job done by the end of the month. They will not have an expectation to see, hear, or have me demonstrate that I’m working on that project between the hours of 9a – 5p, during each and every workday of that month.
Also, as a private company, I feel that I will be able to make more agile decisions to benefit projects and clients, without worrying as much at least about politics, profit, and verbage. There have been many projects I’ve worked on over the years, that were dragged out longer than they should have been, sometimes to the point of cancellation, because certain people had to be asked for their input just to be reminded of how important they believe themselves to be, or a client couldn’t be simply told that an error was made, or worse of all: Something was rushed out before it was ready because profits were put above project correctness and completeness.
There are several glaring proofs that speak to the last case. As I am something of a light gamer in my freetime, the one that readily comes to my mind is the Batman: Arkham Knight debacle perpetrated by WB Games. That was a situation that could have been very easily avoided had the organization simply said to its customers: “Look, we know you really want this, but it still needs work. just give us a little more time with it so we can get it right”.
However, because they’re part of a public company, that likely had shareholders pushing for increased value, one could easily guess that management insisted on it being shipped under the belief that the issues wouldn’t be that bad, and could be remedied with a quick fix later on after the money was rolling in.
When the very opposite turned out to be true, on both counts, it was probably that very same management complaining that they weren’t told of just how severe the problems actually were. Ive been in this situations more times than I’d care to remember.
If you want to see a clear-cut example of a company getting this right, Look no further than the statement made by IO Interactive, involving their decision to delay their new Hitman game, previously set for a December launch, to March of 2016:
“These few extra months will mean we can add more to the launch content of the game, more than we had originally planned, and then follow with a tighter frequency of updates, which ultimately will create a better game for everyone,” Io Interactive wrote on the game’s official website.
I imagine that this couldn’t have been an easy move for them to make, especially given that it means that they will need to forego the god-only-knows-how-much-obscenely extra money they likely would have made with a holiday season launch. Still, its a perfect example of a company truly choosing to think of their customers, and not just their money. I think this move is going to pay off for them very well and its a move I want to be sure that I will always be able to make if need be.
Moving along, let’s talk about the “Never”, that Ill be striving for in my operation:
Perkitech will NEVER have employees
This isn’t to say that I don’t believe that my business can never get strong and profitable enough to support employees or that I will never seek out assistance for larger projects I may land that I don’t believe that I can handle myself. I just feel that taking on consistent paid help, be it hourly or salaried, would run counter to my intent to be able to work anywhere and be agile.
Employees need to me managed, and depending on the specific employee(s), that can be hard enough to do in one place with a static office. I have heard of some startups starting to offer remote-work setups for their employees, but I think i’d prefer to go the subcontract route and just get my assistance on more of a case-by-case as-needed, basis.
In closing, to borrow a quote made by President Obama on the Iran nuclear deal: “My name is on this” (Well, to be precise, about a fourth of my name is on it, but you get the ideal), and I’m betting my dream of a future, nomadic lifestyle on it. I strongly believe I will have a better chance of seeing that dream realized if I play this operation fairly close to the chest.
If you have an opinion or comment regarding any of this, I’d be very welcome and open to you sharing it. I do realize that many of the comments and opinions I’ve stated here are somewhat controversial and I’d love to hear you take on any of it. If you are of a mind that all of this, put together is somewhat unrealistic and unfeasible, then I’d invite you to take some time to check out this gent’s website :-).
Thanks for reading.
