You may be talented. You may have great skills. You may have great platforms that every client dreams to capitalize on, but difficult to work with. Many people are difficult to work with and this has ended up leaving them without clients.
At first, clients will work with you. Because they need your skills and talents. But it will reach a time clients will choose their peace of mind over you. And when they do, they never come back. Worse, they will tell others about you and your behavior.
The greatest mistake one will ever make is to think that they are irreplaceable. Nobody is irreplaceable. Everyone can be replaced. In whatever skills you are an expert in, there is another who does better than you. You are irreplaceable and the sooner you know the better.
In every sector, there is always that one service provider who can do what you do at half the price and is easy to work with. What will stop your client to go for that other service provider? What makes you think that you are so special? You will be left alone.
Difficult people to work with have the following characteristics:
They are unteachable. They know anything and everything. They do not follow what the client says and they always want their word to be the law. They set their own rules and deliverables for the client and end up not delivering as expected.
They promise heaven and deliver the headquarters of hell. It is better not to promise and overdeliver than to overpromise and underdeliver. It breaks trust and makes you a liar and unreliable.
They are impatient and would always want to tyrannize the client on small issues that can be solved through dialogue. No client is ready to fight you. They will just drop you and move on to someone else.
Be patient. Be teachable. Be reasonable. Be realistic.
