I ‘ve been a fan of Haruki Murakami, ever since @megnog bought me The Wind Up Bird Chronicle. I’m now reading What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Murakami’s running memoir.
Anyway, I just wanted to share this with you:
“…you can’t please everybody. Even when I ran my bar I followed the same policy. A lot of customers came to the bar. If one out of ten enjoyed the place and said he’d come again, that was enough. If one out of ten was a repeat customer, then the business would survive.
“To put it the other way, it didn’t matter if nine out of ten didn’t like my bar. This realization lifted a weight off my shoulders. Still, I had to make sure that the one person who did like the place really liked it. In order to make sure he did, I had to make my philosophy and stance clear-cut, and patiently maintain that stance no matter what.”
What a peculiar idea! Murakami’s suggestion – that sometimes it’s better to pursue the business that makes sense to you, rather than desperately trying to please every customer – is vastly contrary to the modern preoccupation with pleasing everyone and countering every criticism.
oh, god! I know exactly what you mean! It’s so true. I refer projects to freelancers on VOIS.com and a few of them are a bit picky like, “I need a job but I won’t do this or that, or even that!” I want to help them so desperately so they aren’t left out in the cold but you just can’t please everyone. The thing that we want to tell members and others is that anything and everything is possible! I do try to give everyone the opportunity though, LOL. = D