One of my most favorite images to discuss is this one:
It shows the power, responsibility and earned trust to permit a client to simply put their head down and follow the leader. The implications of the profound journey, the work to make sure client and artist are joined in effort with the clear understanding of who is the guide and who the guided.
So when news came out this week about the overcrowding at the Mt. Everest summit, with the resulting deaths of at least 11 climbers, most of whom should never have been there in the first place, it sent me down another path — when your business model forces you to compromise, people are going to die. in the case of mountain climbing, literally die, and in the context of your creative business figuratively, though losing your business and/or failing a project can certainly feel like a death.
The New York Times articlelays it out best, “Fly-by-night adventure companies are taking up untrained climbers who pose a risk to everyone on the mountain. And the Nepalese government, hungry for every climbing dollar it can get, has issued more permits than Everest can safely handle, some experienced mountaineers say.” People are dying largely on the Nepali side.
Clearly, the government of Nepal, climbing companies, Nepali sherpas and thrill seeking but woefully unprepared climbers are all driving the push to compromise the trust necessary to climb the highest mountain in the world. With a very narrow window to summit and pressure to generate as much revenue as possible, standards fall to the dollar. And people die. It is the ultimate breach of trust. Even the best sherpa in the world cannot save you if you are stuck in line to the top and run out of oxygen, sherpas who, by the way, have no ability to judge whether you are capable of behaving as you should at 29,000 feet up. In Tibet, however, permits are strictly regulated, prices far higher and standards absolutely enforced. The result, many fewer climbers attempting to summit, from Tibet, but those that do are with proper credentials and understanding of the risks involved. Shocker, but there are about 3 times less climbers from Tibet than Nepal and far fewer casualties.
Now, creative business. If your model is to be a broker or capital asset business (i.e., a traditional hotel) but you would like to invest in the client and their growth (i.e., purposely leave the room empty), you simply cannot. A business built to thrive on volume cannot sell scarcity. Oh, and the trend is your friend (or arch enemy). In the short run, you might get away with the dichotomy and get the premium scarcity would bring. It will not last though as your creative business simply will not let it. A fish has to swim regardless of how much it wants a sun tan. Volume is a cruel mistress and will force you to compromise until peril arrives at your doorstep. I have seen it hundreds of times, the proverbial wrong client is justified and the relationship sours and sours. The price jeopardizes not only the wrong client’s project but also that of the right client. Then it all breaks.
Life is a choice. Clients can choose to ignore the risks of the volume player in front of them and consider all players the same (they are not). Creative business owners can convince themselves that it will all work out even though they are built on baiting and switching in a time of perfect information. The internet and all things digital has driven the idea that anyone can walk the path and minimized the diligence it takes to walk it with integrity. Add to that bad business models and you have the recipe for the perfect storm.
It takes courage to leave the brass ring for those foolish enough to risk their lives unnecessarily. Playing Russian Roulette is not a strategy even if you win. The point is to build the foundation that fulfills your outrageous promise with your outrageous demand. The two have to go together. Always. And the only way they go together is if trust is sacrosanct, supported and the essence of the process you build as an artist and creative business owner to do to work you do to transform your clients world.
