Saying You Can Do What You Can’t
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Oct 27, 2010
A few weeks ago I decided to take someone up on an offer of helping me in figuring out how to market myself. During the second visit, we began a conversation that made me do some serious thinking on the back end.
We were talking about things I could and couldn't do, and I mentioned how I never accept any job that I know I don't have the qualifications for. He said that one should never turn down a contract or opportunity when someone asks for something as a consultant. Instead, they should say they can help, then find the ways to help a client out, even if help has to come from someone else. He felt that's what a consultant was, and that if a consultant only solved people's problems by himself, that was more of a repairman than a consultant. We debated this issue for awhile, then he asked me to think about it some more later on.
Talk about troubling. I had never considered doing this sort of thing before. I have another friend who has said something along the same lines. She said that she always knows someone else who could do the actual work, and thus never tells anyone she can't do it.
I thought about it a lot. It troubled me. I talked to my wife; I talked to my mother. I asked a couple other friends, both consultants and non-consultants. Overall, it bothered me a lot, and because it bothered me a lot, I knew pretty much what my response was going to be.
My overall response is that it's unethical to tell people I can do something that I can't do. There are enough consultants I've known over the years who have promised things they couldn't deliver, all to get a paycheck. In my opinion, those are the people who mess it up for the rest of us.
The same goes with employees I've known in my past, or peers. These people would promise they could get something done, so I let them try, then found they couldn't do it because either they didn't have the skills or the knowledge. Not everyone, of course, but you know, every time someone failed, I already knew they would fail; I just had hopes they wouldn't. And the people who succeeded, I knew they would succeed as well.
Personally, I think it's unethical to get people's hopes up just to let them down because you knew deep inside you couldn't do it. This is different than a lack of bravado; that usually means you had the talent but didn't have the confidence. When you stand up and say you can do something, and people trust you, then it's imperative that you be able to do it. If you can't, and it's because you always knew you couldn't, you lose that trust forever; who wants that on their mind?
So, the next time I see this guy, I'm going to tell him my belief and that's going to be that. As for the repairman thing, my wife says this world could use a lot more repairmen, people who know what they're doing and can get the job done. I knew I married the right woman.
I don’t agree 100% with you. Let me explain.
While I too think it’s unethical to over-promise and under-deliver, I think there’s a way around that.
In my experience, before saying “No” to a job, it’s better to say “I can get done 50% of it, and I have partners that can get the other 50% done, or I can hook you up directly with them should you prefer so”.
The final goal is not just to get a paycheck, but to get the job done and your customer happy, no?
If I can do a portion and know of someone, then that’s fine. If I can only do a portion but can’t do the rest and don’t know anyone, then it’s unethical. When I know someone who’s a better fit than I am, I recommend that person and let them get it. If we can share, that’s always good as well. But I refuse to recommend anyone I don’t know.
This is a very thought provoking post, like Gabriele above, I don’t agree 100%, but you have very good reasons backing up your point of view.
I agree with you that it is unethical to tell a client/person that you can do something for them and not be able to do it. I have seen a few cases recently of people coming to me for help because their previous web developer over promised them and could not deliver on what they said. For whatever reason, the projects didn’t get done, or didn’t get done the way it was expected. This is terribly unethical and a horrible way to run a business.
On the flip side however, I don’t think that it is unethical at all to tell a client that you can do something for them and then do it. Being freelancers like ourselves, we wear many hats. One of our jobs, among very many, is Project Manager. It is our job to take the weight off of the client and run their projects so that they don’t have to worry about finding someone to do a specialized task for them.
It’s easy to find quality people to do a job with social media. Most clients do not have the network, the capability, or the patience to find skilled, quality work in the area. For most clients, their first step is Craigslist, and that’s not the best spot to find quality work.
Nobody can be a jack of all trades. If I were looking for a web developer, I would be afraid if he/she told me they were an expert in HTML/CSS development, PHP, Flash, and J-Query. All of those topics are very in depth and I would rather have a person that specializes in Flash, and can handle finding others, than have to look for others on my own.
I think that it’s important to be clear with clients; I tell them I have a PHP guy or iPhone app guy if the need arises.
Well, there’s my two cents…
Keith, it’s the point of whether we can do it or not that separates ethical from unethical. There are a lot of things I do that I don’t know anyone else who does them. There are also a lot of things I don’t know that I don’t know anyone else who does them. For me, it would be unethical to say I could do something without having the knowledge of either how to do it or who I could turn to for assistance in doing it. As you said and as I wrote, we’ve seen so many instances where someone has said they can do something and it turns out to be a disaster. I never want anything like that associated with my name.
I agree with that guy, that you should never turn down a contract or opportunity. I say this because every problem has a solution, you just need to find it. And it doesn’t matter if you found that solution from receiving help from someone else. Saying YES from the start shows that you are willing to accept any challenge. It’s not fair to make a promise and not keep it either… I agree with Gabriele Maidecchi, that the final goal is to get the job done and your customer happy…
Mark, I just can’t do that in good conscience. To me, it’s lying, and I refuse to do that for any reason. No one will ever be able to say that I promised something I can’t deliver on. It’s fine for others, but not for me.