Anything is possible ... at a cost. Don't think in terms of "yes that is possible, no that is not possible." Think in terms of "yes that is possible but here are the parameters." Offer a service, with terms. If your service is needed at the terms you set, people will buy it. If not, they won't. The customer can say 'no', but not you who are providing the service.
Don't take things personal, or get emotional. It's about helping people with what they need based on what is actually happening in reality.
Embrace reality, and deal with it. -- Ray DalioIf your service is not needed on your terms, you must evolve. Try something new. Offer something that is needed or try different terms. In the gig economy you are either offering a service that is needed or you are not working.
If you offer a service that is not needed it will go away eventually. That's how evolution and the capitalist market economy works. It's a "market", a place where goods and services are exchanged for money. The price of the good or service is based on supply and demand.
If you supply something that a bunch of other people supply it's going to be hard to demand favorable terms on your part.
I tour manage bands. There is a market rate for tour managers based on supply and demand. Some tour managers make more or less based on certain parameters (like their reputation, experience, size of venues, cyclical calendar months, etc). These parameters will pull my rate up or down based on the industry standard. In other words, the standard rate of tour managers is determined by all the tour managers out there.
With that rate there are expectations: book travel, get the band places on time, keep up with accounting, etc.
Therefore, if I'm a tour manager, I offer a service (tour managing) with terms (book travel, etc) and get paid for it (my rate). If someone has expectations outside of my terms, I would expect more money. If I was on tour and someone said, "can you bury this body for me?". I should say "I can, but it's going to cost more money than my normal day rate."
Therefore terms have expectations from the industry as to what a tour manager is supposed to do. This is based on what all the tour managers out there do. Most tour managers probably won't bury bodies based on the standard rate. They would want more money.
Because there are expectations of what a tour manager is supposed to do, if you want to be the best you have to exceed expectations, over-deliver. You have to give more than what was expected based on the terms. By over-delivering you can not only help people with what they need, but show people what they want. You can show people things they didn't know existed or didn't know they wanted. Henry Ford and Steve Jobs both said that.
In summary, the way to get a gig is to deliver a service with terms at the market rate. The way to keep a gig is to over-deliver on those terms. Said another way, the way to get a gig is to deliver a service that meets people's expectations. The way to keep a gig is to over-deliver and exceed people's expectations.
If you can offer a service that meets people's expectations, they will try it. If it exceeds their expectations they will continue to use it.
This is fairly obvious, but the difficulty is in doing it, not saying it. It's the same as saying the gazelle should run faster than the lion. The problem is that the lion is trying to survive just as much as the gazelle. So the gazelle has to evolve.
Animals have to constantly evolve, businesses have to constantly evolve. The key word is "constantly". As in, every day they have to try to be better than the previous day. If they don't, they will die. That's what happens in reality. In the gig economy, a person is a business. If a company ignores reality, or hopes something will change, or doesn't believe in evolution, then it will be destroyed over time.
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The needs of a society change. Therefore the services of society change based on what people need.
Many people lament change. They have an idea in their head about how the world "should" be and become upset when the world does something different. Often this idealistic view is based on how the world "used" to be, but never actually existed. They have ...
Nostalgia for an age that never existed. -- Jello BiafraThe music for a person in her forties was always better when she was in her twenties. Find a forty year old person who says that popular music is better today than it was twenty years ago. And if you go back twenty years, ask the same question and you will get the same answer.
Thinking about how the world "should" be is important but ideals have to be based on what is actually happening presently in reality not how the world "used" to be.
The definition of an ideal is:
1. satisfying one's conception of what is perfect; most suitableTherefore, ideals are unrealistic, but not impossible. Ideal-ism is the practice of pursuing ideals. It's the action of moving toward your concept of what is perfect. You may not reach perfection but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try.
2. existing only in the imagination; desirable or perfect but not likely to become a reality.
You must "change" the world, not become mired in how it "used" to be. You have to look at the world and decide:
1) what you want, 2) what is true, 3) what you should do to achieve #1 in light of #2 -- Ray DalioDon't complain and become emotional. Be analytical and look at the world, think how it should be based on what is actually happening, and then shape it.
On Idealism, first you have to look at reality to see what is actually happening. Then you have to provide a service that is needed. Then, if you are motivated to do so, you can use idealism to change the world and show people things they didn't know they wanted.
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Here's a brief history of money. 10,000 years ago one person grew crops and another herded cattle. They exchanged crops for cattle. Over time people exchanged all sorts of services and goods. They also discovered gold. It was rare, malleable and shiny and they liked it. People then also exchanged gold for goods and services. As they moved around the earth they found it was sometimes easier to carry gold for storing value than it was to carry goods. Metalworkers learned to imprint the weight of the gold on each piece thus signifying its value. That became coins.
Metalworkers also built safes to store gold coins. People with lots of gold kept it in the safes. The metalworker wrote them a paper receipt with a printed value of the amount of gold they had in the safe (based on the weight). That was paper money, and people could then use that to exchange goods and services.
It's a little more complicated than that now because of banks and governments, but the idea of money as a medium of exchange persists. People exchange money for goods and services. Over time, if you provide a good or service that is needed by people they will give you money. If you don't, they won't.
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Every company, no matter how large, started with one person offering a product or service that another person needed. All companies are built on that.
They grow over time and become more complex. But they have to change over time. In the gig economy a person is a small business, and there are no salaries. It gives much quicker feedback. Think in terms of hyperbole. You either absolutely kill it or you are shit. You either continue to get business, or lose work.
The world changes, and people's needs change. Nothing is permanent. The world is always changing on a molecular level around you. Even the walls of your house are slowly crumbling on a molecular level.
You can lament how things USED to be, or solve problems.
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The point of "never say no" is that if you are offering a service you shouldn't say "no" to the client or customer's demands. You should raise the price of the service to match the demand. And by doing that you can allow the customer to say "no" instead. If you raise the price high enough so that you are satisfied and they still say "yes" then you should over-deliver in order to keep them coming back.
Metalworkers also built safes to store gold coins. People with lots of gold kept it in the safes. The metalworker wrote them a paper receipt with a printed value of the amount of gold they had in the safe (based on the weight). That was paper money, and people could then use that to exchange goods and services.
It's a little more complicated than that now because of banks and governments, but the idea of money as a medium of exchange persists. People exchange money for goods and services. Over time, if you provide a good or service that is needed by people they will give you money. If you don't, they won't.
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Every company, no matter how large, started with one person offering a product or service that another person needed. All companies are built on that.
They grow over time and become more complex. But they have to change over time. In the gig economy a person is a small business, and there are no salaries. It gives much quicker feedback. Think in terms of hyperbole. You either absolutely kill it or you are shit. You either continue to get business, or lose work.
The world changes, and people's needs change. Nothing is permanent. The world is always changing on a molecular level around you. Even the walls of your house are slowly crumbling on a molecular level.
You can lament how things USED to be, or solve problems.
***********************
The point of "never say no" is that if you are offering a service you shouldn't say "no" to the client or customer's demands. You should raise the price of the service to match the demand. And by doing that you can allow the customer to say "no" instead. If you raise the price high enough so that you are satisfied and they still say "yes" then you should over-deliver in order to keep them coming back.