Principles. Everyone has principles of some sort. Principles can be good or bad. Principles are the rules and beliefs that govern our personal behavior by instilling in each us a code of ethics. Among many (though apparently not all) christians and jews, the principle “Thou shalt not kill” has inspired the ethic that it is morally wrong to kill your fellow man. Many other religious groups and cultures share similar principles. Among vegetarians, the principle that man is not superior to other creatures has inspired the concept of refraining from the consumption of meat and the mistreatment of animals. Among cheaters, the principle that its only wrong if you get caught makes cheating acceptable (as long as you don’t get caught). Among thieves, the principle that a person who can’t take the time to protect their valuables doesn’t deserve to keep them allows a thief to take another’s property and not think twice about it. Everyone has principles, good or bad, that govern our thoughts and actions.
When we interact with the world, we make decisions every day that are based on our principles. Most decisions are small and easy, but some are tougher. The more strictly we hold on to our principles, the more often we will find ourselves in conflict. For instance, one who is asked to build a website for a licensed gun dealer might decline the job based on his personal viewpoint that guns are dangerous and that the number of people who die in shootings is intolerable. However, another person who enjoys hunting might have a different view on the job and accept it. In a second example, a person who has sworn off meat but regularly partakes of cheese, eggs or other animal products, might take on a dairy group as a client while another who refuses to eat any animal related products might find such a job offensive. In each of these cases, a decision was made based on a person’s individual principles and what their conscience allows them to do.
Taking a stand based on your principles can be a difficult and lonely task. Even if you have support at home or from your friends, at the moment you have to make your position known, you are often alone. When you work for an employer, taking a stand is generally not an ongoing issue, since you often only have to do it once; the outcome being that you are either fired, that you find you need to quit, or that your employer simply decides to shuffle jobs that offend your conscience off to another employee who is comfortable handling the work (and yes, might get more promotions than you because he is more flexible).
As a business owner, however, you will have to make your position known each and every time a project you object to comes along. For some, telling your clients or potential clients you aren’t interested in a job based on principle is tough, while for others it comes easily. In fact, its so difficult for some, that they’ll find other reasons to turn a job down, often citing a heavy workload or conflict of interest as a reason, but this creates a problem in that without a clear understanding of why they were turned away, the client might come back again and again with similar jobs that you will also have to turn away. Being upfront, however, will often clear up future misunderstandings and likely may gain you the respect of such a client (even if you don’t get their business).
Ah, if only all situations were so black and white, but life often finds ways to make things difficult for us. Some reasons a decision might be difficult to make are:
- A job is right on the border of what you’d find offensive, skirting the line, but not actually crossing it.
- Someone REALLY likes your work and offers more money, hoping your principles have a price. And like it or not, money talks to all of us. Sometimes it speaks very loudly, and can start to drown out our conscience.
- When money is short, any job seems more urgent than it should, especially if people other than yourself depend on your income.
- Sometimes an odd job you’d rather not do will come down from a regular client; one you don’t want to lose or offend.
I know its tough. I try to live my life by principles found in the Bible, and I’ve been in all of the above situations. For example, in the past I’ve turned away very lucrative work offers for adult websites, design work for violent video games and the occasional job for various religious and non-religious holidays. While I freely admit that I haven’t always made the best decisions, I can say that I have learned from my bad ones. I’d like to share my own observations on what I learned after making poor decisions:
- Your conscience is malleable and will bend where you put pressure on it. Taking a borderline job this time actually pushes the border back, so that next time a similar job comes up, it is no longer your borderline, something worse is.
- Saying ‘yes’ even once often leads to a barrage of similar offers
- A client that sees that you will accommodate them even a little beyond where you want to go, will eventually ask you to go further.
- The money you make from a questionable job is quickly spent, but your memory and knowledge of having done it stays with you a long time. Especially if you see the client is still using it years after you created it.
- Those who depend on you to feed them depend on you even more for other things. They are counting on you to remain who you are, to show them how to stand by their own principles and how to remain true to themselves. They need someone they can look up to.
- Most clients, even your best ones, eventually go away, anyway.
- Both you and your business have reputations to uphold. In this day and age, your reputation is often your greatest marketing asset. If you diminish or destroy it, you will feel it economically and socially.
Whatever your principles are, stick to them. Whenever your conscience tells you that you might be over the line, even just a little, listen to it. Check things out. See if you’re about to do yourself more harm than good, and if you are, walk away. There’s little that feels worse professionally than having work in your portfolio that you are morally ashamed of, or having people support something you oppose with your own work.
