When People Show You Who They Are, Believe Them

The year was 2017. We had just started a new client engagement with a rather large cruise line based out of Seattle, Washington. The marketing team we were working with had just made a significant investment in purchasing the entire Adobe Experience Cloud, which, among other things, consisted of software for analyzing consumer behavior, conducting experience optimization tests, audience identification and management, and a data collection framework.

They had also made numerous promises to executive stakeholders at the cruise line about when this software would be configured and deployed. Promises that they alone would be unable to keep.

Enter 33 Sticks into the equation. And myself specifically.

“Hey Jason, we know this is a huge ask, but we have to do whatever it takes to have all of this software fully configured, tested, and running by January 1, 2018. Can you help us?”

And by help, what they were asking was, would i be willing to sacrifice myself for the greater good? While everyone else at the cruise line and everyone else at 33 Sticks was enjoying a few weeks off at the end of 2017, spending quality time with friends and family over the holidays, i would be working.

What it took to pull off this last-minute miracle was working 10-12 hour days, including nights and weekends, including Christmas Day, including my birthday, to ensure that the promises made would be kept.

Working alone while everyone else was in full holiday mode, i was able to single-handedly pull off a miracle. i was exhausted but also immensely proud of what we— not i, we— were able to accomplish.

And all i really wanted in return was to feel appreciated. But, i wasn’t shown any appreciation. Sure, i guess i could say that a token of appreciation was that they continued to pay our monthly invoices for continued services, but there was no appreciation shown for the personal sacrifices that i had made.

And they continued to pay their invoices… until they didn’t.

Enter COVID! The first month of lockdowns, companies were all in a panic, and the cruise line based out of Seattle, Washington was no different. Their leadership panicked and made a lot of panicked decisions. One of those decisions was to break the contract that they had with 33 Sticks.

The justification? We need to cancel these contracts to save the company.

So they did. They canceled a contract with an 8-person, privately held company to save a company that nets billions of dollars a year.

Let me repeat that because it’s important: Nets, not gross revenue, net revenue. After all expenses have been paid, this company puts billions— BILLIONS with a B— of USD dollars in the bank every single year.

i was angry. After all i had sacrificed for them, this is how they chose to show their appreciation.

i swore that i would never work with such a horrible company again. i had learned my lesson.

Then COVID receded and the cruise line came crawling back, “We need your help, our data is a mess, we can’t run personalization campaigns. HELP!”

i knew then, as i know now, that the right thing to do was to show empathy but to refuse their business. They had, on more than one occasion, shown me who they were, and i should have believed them.

But… the money was good, and i used that to talk myself into taking them back.

i instantly regretted it. The team i had put on the account was unhappy, feeling abused by the client. Overworked. Under appreciated. Everything i already knew about how this client operated, and so it didn’t come as a surprise. But it did make me incredibly disappointed in myself for allowing it to happen.

"i regret to inform you that we have made a decision to terminate our relationship with 33 Sticks."

And now this week, for a second time, the company that i sacrificed personally for, the company that i took back after they left us for dead on the side of the road, is terminating a contract that they committed to fulfilling.

Maybe this whole experiment of doing business more personally, from a more humanistic perspective, will ultimately fail, as it seems that the “it’s just business” cult is stronger and more uncaring than ever.

I’m not sure; it’s still something I’m unsure of. But what i am sure of is that when a business, when people, show you who they are, you should believe them.

This journey has taught me a valuable lesson: to trust in the integrity of others when they reveal their true colors.

Reflecting on the Human Element

It’s important to recognize that these decisions, often masked as "business decisions," are made by people. When we say it’s a "business decision," we give individuals an excuse to not have to personally own their actions. With this specific client example, it's the people there, some of whom are good people, but they fall victim to bad culture that stems from poor leadership at the very top of the company.

Good people can make bad decisions under the influence of a toxic culture. It is crucial to remember that behind every business decision are individuals who must own their actions and the impact they have on others.

Believing in the humanity of business means holding people accountable and recognizing the personal responsibility behind every action taken.