I have a friend who has strange ideas about what impresses people.
He grew up soul-crushingly poor. To this day it haunts him. He carries it with him in everything he does. He thinks that everyone is trying to take his money away from him and undervaluing what he produces.
I was helping him organize some digital images on a USB drive the other day and as we were creating folders and getting things together I saw that he had a number of pictures of $100 bills strewn across the table in his gallery. I asked him where they got filed and he said “résumé”. I asked him why résumé and he said: “I print these out and take them in with me when I am interviewing for a commission [he is a fine artist] so I can show them and let them know that they can’t cheat me. I make money.”
I was shocked that someone would do this.
It goes against every single business theory I have. I asked him if maybe he understood that he may not be getting the commissions he deserves because he was putting people off. He didn’t understand what I meant. To him the idea that someone would show up with those kinds of pictures meant business; where to me it would mean it is the last time they would EVER hear from me.
This surprised him.
I explained that those with money don’t really want to see huge displays of it. That someone commissioning a work from him would be really disgusted by those pictures.
Me: “It speaks of a lack of class! To me it says ‘I have no grace or elegance’, ‘I am the farthest thing from refined you will see!’, and ‘I don’t know how to behave in social situations’.”
Him: “Um, Tchad, since you are giving me a lecture about class, refinement, and grace… I wasn’t going to say anything… but you have a big booger hanging out of your nose… I can’t let you go on and on about dignity while you have something hanging out of your nose.”
Me: “…”
Him: “I’m sorry. You were saying?”
So that is it. I still think that it is classless behavior on his part to take those photos to an interview… something glass houses… something something stones…