As an industry grows and becomes more ubiquitous, there is a wealth of new work opportunities that come with it. That is the nature of any growing sector.

Unfortunately, that also means there is a lot of low level junk that also begins to clutter up the industry. Fly by night clients, clients with no money, clients with ulterior motives, clients with no sustainable future… the list goes on.

What I am becoming baffled by is why are so many people fighting over this awful, no paid, no opportunity work?

Why are we scrabbling over clients who will never pay us, never care about us, never do anything for us except maybe toss a few empty promises of “exposure” our direction?

All that time that we spend spinning on these fruitless endeavors, chasing opportunities that are vapid and draining by nature is time we are not spending chasing the god clients, pursuing the work that pays, the work that matters, the work that means something, that work that can transform our careers.

I think it is time we stopped giving so much attention to this bad work and started focusing exclusively on getting better work.

Who is with me?

James Patrick
jamespatrick.com
IG @jpatrickphoto