So I happened to be at Chevron House in Raffles Place the other day, and if you're familiar with the ground floor retail stretch, you will know that there is a Starbucks along one side of the stretch, same side as Burger King, and there is a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on the other.
But it didn't always use to be Coffee Bean.
But it didn't always use to be Coffee Bean.
Before the 1963 Ice Blended peeps took over, it was Costa Coffee.
And it was during the time of it being Costa Coffee that my colleague and I met up with this gentleman who had connected with me through LinkedIn and, after a couple of missed dates, arranged to meet.
I don't go into meetings blank headed.
But neither do I like going into meetings with preconceived notions.
In that sense, I like to know just a little of what the other person is doing, or has done, and I like to go and listen to what it is they do and if they're out of the same circle, why they would be interested to meet someone in media & entertainment any case. (You don't need to arrange a coffee chat if you want me to do a 2D 3D animation for you)
So we went, and we chatted, and it didn't take long before I realized that behind all the stories of what he was doing- something along the lines of drinking water and fish- was really an extended justification for us to do up a video for him at the lowest cost possible.
Meaning: Free.
Look, I'm fine with pro-bono. I do get the occasional request, of which to date I haven't agreed to any because we're strict like that and there are many Causes and Missions in life out of which we have not quite decided on which yet and we haven't heard a strong enough argument to share in said Cause or Mission.
It's so strange, but really, do people think that they can waltz up to just about any company- whichever it may be- and then with just a simple, casual chat, convince the other to salute them in their Cause with a piece of work worth five figures?
Am I supposed to be impressed by the figures that you tell me you have achieved, when the world is already all about sustainable farming and giving back to the farmers? Am I supposed to share in the same Mission as you do because you think I share the same faith as you? And am I supposed to be won over by your great work because over a coffee chat you said you were this, this, this, this good?
Oh, seriously? Do we look like morons to you?
And does it look like we're that out of touch with the "real" world?
Maybe it is my gender or something.
I don't know.
Either my gender or my colleague's youthful appearance or the assumption that we only live in a make-believe, fantasy, "creative" world and have no understanding of real world issues.
Where do these assumptions come from?
And why do people assume that we need their help to achieve certain milestones for our work? I mean, do they think we not know where we stand and that we not know from whom we need win-win partnerships, or help even? Do they think that we do not know who it is we need to impress and why? Or is it just about anyone who comes and throws a few names down?
A few years back there was this gentleman who casually mentioned that what we were doing for them would be shown to someone who was a personality, and who knew another very well-known personality of this particular medium from the media & entertainment industry over there on the Hills- and how grateful (!) to I-don't-know-who we should be for this granted opportunity.
In other words, slave and slog for this project, okay, because your work might be shown to these famous dudes, and you know, there are so many people like you (!) who long to get their work eyeballed by these dudes but they can't get even sniff their coat tails, but hey, I can get your work right to them.
I had no heart to tell this wonderful person that right down there in our email server were certain email exchanges between the very well-known personality and a colleague of ours, and that they had been there for a couple of years.
Revealing it would have made us sound like a bunch of liars, and since we don't operate in a world where we can go around showing emails exchanges under the Confidentiality Act for the sake of proof...
Neither had I the heart to tell him that we actually know our place, we have the paperwork if we needed to show, and that really, thank you for your offer, it is generous and magnanimous of you, but some of the people we work with are already there and introducing what we do for you to them would only make you look like a fool.
Now, don't think of me as one cynical, arrogant person. I get excited and impressed by the smallest of things cos I can see where it is going and I can the charm of it all. But telling me stuff like what I've shared above, this achievement, that achievement, this gateway, that gateway, I know so and so, I know so and so, all I can say is, like how the song by LeAnn Rimes goes, "that don't impress me much".