EMAIL & SIMON
Simon found a seat and spent a couple of minutes going through emails, then another ten minutes reading and re-reading an email from a client – this meant he had the rest of the journey to contemplate being fired. An hour later as the 452 rattled off down Ladbroke Grove, Simon was being beckoned into his boss’s goldfish bowl office. Simon had moved to London at 19, he ‘let the breaks off in a big way’, and spent 10k of his grant on drugs, he had no choice but to defer his degree. He took stock, cleaned up and returned to college. He graduated with a first, walked into his dream job and within 3 years was an associate, trusted to run a team and cover for a colleague who was on holiday. The cover this time involved a quick site visit and a request to encourage the client to keep to the original scheme of concrete floors in their basement. Simon dutifully did as asked, meeting with the client’s PA on site and following up with an email reiterating the recommendation to use concrete. The reply arrived swiftly, ‘If I want my floors covered in muesli with shag pile carpeting on the walls that is what I will have.’ clearly the client did not want concrete, clearly he was incensed to be patronised by someone with such ‘an obvious lack of experience.’ He magnanimously offered to ‘draw a line under this – I assume drawing lines is well within your skill-set.’ Simon has framed this email. It was a lesson in not dictating to clients and the catalyst to setting up his own practise, a practise which studiously avoids the ‘spoilt rich’. Simon has just finished designing his own house, he held off on the shag pile carpeting for the walls and chose concrete instead.
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