Bing, the world, at a critical point in history, has growing pollution in its rivers, lakes, oceans, atmosphere, and now orbital space is polluted with space junk and nobody cares.

You say not all people are stupid, I agree. The many non-stupid people that interact with the crew in the cockpit of the planet are greatly outnumbered by the stupid passengers that cramp the space of the plane, ship, or bus to go to some distant place just to sc—; they can do that at home.

Bottom line is that the non-stupid are greatly outnumbered.

Daily, I notice caddillacs, bmws’ jags, and lexus’ in rush hour grid-lock. My thought: The “Titanic” did indeed sink!

I got quite a good chuckle out of your response to the question. I actually do happen to be in banking (where we have a monopoly on idiot clients) and recall a former manager explaining the concept of “firing the client” to me. “Firing the client” becomes necessary generally when you just can’t deal with them anymore.

Firing the client is also a practice employed when you finally determine that yes, they are going to leave anyway – sort of like that old school child saying, “I don’t care if you don’t like me – I never liked you anyway!”.

Firing the client can be as satisfying as firing your boss – in the end, you may have to find a new home (once you miss your mortgage payments) but hey, internal satisfaction is all that matters, right?

Yes. I’m in banking; a real bank loan officer who tried to guide clients into loans that would work for them…but when they couldn’t always get ALL THE MONEY THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE ENTITLED TO…or as cheap as they wanted. So they went shopping and usually found a mortgage broker who could get them a real “deal”. Even when I could show them on Good Faith Estimates that the other deal was too costly, the rate would be too high and the APR was higher…they still took the other loan because they could get more money, finance the costs…and, well, just refinance before the rate adjusted.

I know there are dumb people, naive people, greedy people. But what really got me was this attitude of ENTITLEMENT TO ALL THE CASH THEY COULD GET to spend on “goodies, and “I gotta have it” stuff.

I used to be more like those clients until I almost lost everything after the downturn in California real estate after the end of the cold war. That was a hard hard cold hurtful lesson. But no one was interested. So, I suppose everyone will learn their own lesson. Luckily, I’ll soon be able to retire, and this time around I’m not going to be one of the big losers.

We always had a rule at every position I’ve worked at. It goes against the standard belief, but it is definately the truth;

“The customer is not always right, but the customer is ALWAYS the customer.”

I could see the thought you put into your answer regarding that question, and what you said is definately right. The customer is wrong, and you shouldn’t do what they say. But the customer pays the bills, so do what they say. It’s finding the happy medium that generates success.

As for stupid clients, I’ve seen them everywhere. As you said, they wouldn’t be coming for your expertise if they knew how to do it themselves.

I think Forrest Gump said it best…..”Stupid is as Stupid does”

1. Perhaps AD guy needs to learn to sell his/her idea a bit better.
2. Where does the rule book state that the “ad guy always knows best”? Listen up and you may learn a thing or two.
3. Your job isn’t to take orders, but provide sound advice. Which, the client can choose to ignore if they want — it is their check book afterall.
4. If you’ve made your case and client goes another direction, support the effort, cash your check and look forward to the next opportunity to sell your point of view.