So what’s with all this attitude at 42? Understandable if I was young, but telling the boss of an international brand that you think you love the brand more than he does sounds pretty damn arrogant, and that’s exactly what I said to Jose Angeles, the big man at Toyo Tyres Australia a couple of years ago during our first meeting.
Over the years I’ve developed an interesting relationship with most of my clients. It takes a lot for a client to take risks on me and allow me to work the way I want to work, because if you try to make me work the way everybody else does… well then there’s friction, and well, then basically nothing gets done.
I got a message from Nicholas Green yesterday. Nick has been a middle man of sorts in my relationship with Toyo. He simply asked for a Toyo update and I lost my shit.
It’s funny how much pressure we put on ourselves. It’s funny how much pressure money puts on me and how much pressure I put on money. In a time where I’m hyper aware of how little energy I have for anything but working on personal issues and gaming, I still wake up with ZEN and Toyo on the brain and if I scroll through my feeds, though there are less posts I still see ZEN and Toyo posts in the mix.
It’s this natural connect that is important to me and I love that Toyo and many other of my clients leave me alone to do what I like when I like, but for some reason, a simple question from Nick yesterday made me feel an immense pressure, like what I was doing wasn’t enough, like maybe we should just drop the relationship, like what the hell was I thinking?
It’s taken a few deep breaths, an apology, and a phone call to both Nick and Jose to calm me down. Thanks Nick, and Jose for being pillars and mirrors for me. I didn’t like what I saw in the reflection, but I’m glad I’ve seen it, and I’m massively grateful for the support.