The mirage of infallibility – Freelancers and self-forgiveness

 

In 1869, the Catholic Church issued an edict that the Pope, whoever holds the office, is infallible, at least on certain matters under certain conditions. To everybody but the most devout Catholics, this doctrine sounds completely absurd as every person, regardless of his/her wisdom, makes errors of judgment. Yet, most freelancers crucify themselves every time their work is not perfect. For example, among translators, a series of mistranslations discovered by the customer can lead to a wrenching soul-searching experience and massive self-doubt. In reality, not all errors are of equal seriousness. Furthermore, customers do not automatically end their relationship after they discover the error. Most importantly, entrepreneurs need to learn to cope with these experiences as they do occur, hopefully rarely, even after years of experience.

Most freelancers strive for perfection, an impossible goal in most cases and one that is often not economically justified. Like all people, for whatever reason, they make errors sometimes. Some are minor transgressions that the only the service provider sees. For example, when using a given template that has been applied numerous times, the translator suddenly notices an incorrect term. The matter has no impact on the content but the fact that it took so long to notice raises doubts and is bothersome. On a more serious note, customers sometimes catch minor errors and ask for correction. Often these mistakes involve names, terminology and numbers, which can escape the eye of QA tools in translation. The worst case is when these customers discover major errors. In translation, these include missing text, retained elements that should not be in the applicable document and clear mistranslations. These capital errors can shake the freelancer’s foundation of self-belief as the question of “how did I miss that” cannot be avoided. Thus, not all mistakes are created equally.

Nor do all clients react the same. Clearly, the mistakes they did not see do not bother them. As for the minor ones, in my experience, while customers would prefer perfection, they are willing to forgive minor errors if the service provider remedies them promptly and professionally. The serious errors are another matter. Here, the reaction varies greatly. At the worst, the customer pays for the job after the corrections and never returns to the service provider. More often than not, if there is a previous record of solid work, customers come back, maybe because finding a potentially better service provider is not worth the effort. In the best case, the customer sees how the freelancer remedied the issues and now has a greater appreciation of his/her professional approach. In other words, the error, however regrettable, may actually build customer loyalty. Therefore, “getting caught” is not necessarily an unmitigated disaster.

The greatest impact of making mistakes is on service providers themselves. Two essential elements of professional work and success are caring about quality and confidence in one’s ability. The discovery of errors, whether minor or major, stimulates the first and jars the second. The physical proof that, despite all one’s knowledge and efforts, such errors reached the customer is very disturbing. For many freelancers without support systems, it leads to serious self-doubt and even depression. After all, they are supposed to be the professionals, the knowledgeable ones. They may be mitigating circumstances, whether deadlines or lack of instructions, but that does not excuse the failure. The psychological cost of being less than perfect is often higher than the financial one.

As I look at my career, I see great progress in how I have come to accept my rare failings. Some twenty years ago, after I submitted a far more ideal translation, I felt depressed for over a week. I questioned whether I should continue in this profession. By contrast, recently, I submitted a translation of several complex official documents, some of them with handwritten text. The customer checked them and found several minor errors, mainly names. I calmly corrected them and resubmitted them. He paid me and appreciated the professional service. I focused my thoughts on how I could avoid such errors in the future, a constructive approach, and went on to my other work. I did not pose questions about my ability. I have learned from experience.

In summary, it is absurd to believe that any person, no matter how knowledgeable and experienced s/he may be, can achieve perfection. To err is human. While freelancers should always strive to achieve the best possible results, errors will sometimes occur due to circumstances and human limitations. In such cases, it is healthier, both on a business and personal level, to focus on remedying the issues, learning from them and moving on. By the way, even the Papal edict on infallibility did not apply to the Pope’s personal actions. Freelancers – forgive yourself.

Intuit

I have been a freelancer for some 15 years now.  I began my translating career knowing next to nothing about translation and very little in practice about running my own business. To explain, my MBA did provide me with some macro understanding but very little guidance on how to run a one-person business. My tools were trial and error, analysis and, most importantly, intuition.

To be clear, I have made plenty of mistakes and still do occasionally.  After every “disaster”, I analyze what went wrong and how to avoid a repeat incident.  In this manner, I have managed to learn what my business education did not teach me: how to run a translation business. Aside from countless small technical tricks, my main conclusion of all my analysis is that the key for me on both a macro and micro level is not accounting or vision, which have their place, but but instead intution, 

Intuition is the “gut feeling” before any decision, big or small, that it feels right.  It is not necessarily rational and logical within the framework of the facts known at the time. Nor does it emotionally reflect our desires and/or fears. Intuition often leads us to take actions that have negative short term consequence or arouse fear.  In fact, our intuition both encompasses these elements and surpasses them in understanding. It is the feeling that a given plan of action is correct regardless of whether the brain or heart endorses it. Of course, it should not be confused with wishful thinking, a dangerous cousin, infamous for causing impulsive and foolish actions. The difference between them is similar to that between happy and contented, with the former describing the state of mind at any given time, subject to immediate change, while the latter describing a general state of mind regardless of immediate events. In fact, the key in known what a potential decision is intuitive or wishful is if it still feels correct after some time has passed.

I can say that I could have avoided close to 95% of my mistakes if I had noticed and heeded my intuition. On a macro level, I would have avoided several scammers since I sensed that something was wrong but did not investigate.  I would have avoided certain texts that were beyond my understanding and ability, which I immediately knew deep down. I would have pursued certain marketing media much earlier because I understood that they had good potential. On a micro level,  I would have insisted on longer deadlines since I had a strong feeling that the document was more complicated than it seemed at first glance but I did not insist. I would have rechecked and reedited phrases that lit up a red light before the client had to read it. In other words, as a translator, I “knew” what I needed to do but did not follow my intuition.

On a positive note, my intuitive decision to break out of the gilded cage of a salary and become independent has transformed my life and thinking.  I cannot imagine my life only as a teacher. Armed with intuition, I have found a long-term niche, developed practical operating procedures and pursued effective marketing strategies not only relying on my rational analysis but also my intuitive feeling. I have had almost no payment issues in a situation where most of my customers are far away. Without being an expert on any specific country, I have been able to communicate with people from a wide variety of cultures and expectations. In an uncertain future, I can rely on my intuition, with guidance from others as required, to overcome challenges.

To clarify, every business person, large and small, must be keep track and be aware of the key numbers: income, expenses, change, etc. Not only that, a vision of the business in five years is vital for long term planning. However, these two tools are not sufficient to guarantee success. At least for freelancers, intuition is an important key.

The advice is deceivingly simple. The voice of our intuition is much quieter than that of our desires, fear and cold logic.  Not only that, outside voices, both family and colleagues, can impact our decisions, many times but not always for the best. Consequently, it is important to consult people that truly understand, not primarily want to control. Ultimately, the success of freelancer is in the hands of the freelancer. You don’t need an MBA to succeed but it is vital to listen to the quiet but wise voice of intuition.

Imitation and flattery revisited

All languages are not created equal as each has a different creator. The context here is neither the virtue nor beauty of languages but instead their structure.  Many translators in their loyalty to the form of the source language err by applying it to the target language. I will demonstrate by showing three differences between French and English form.

It is accepted use and quite logical in terms of logic to capitalize last names, places and company names in French.  For examples, in a French legal document, there may be a reference to M. Jacques COLON, residing in NICE working for the SONY company. This use of large letters makes it easy to identify key facts. By contrast, in English, capitalization of all letters in a word is the written equivalent of screaming, only to be used to accentuate in extreme cases. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME NOW? Therefore, applying French capitalization rules in English makes the text sound verbally violent. Mr Jacques Colon, residing in Nice, works for Sony. That is all.

Some punctuation rules are also not equivalent. The French, for reasons unclear to me, put a space between the word and the following colon, as in “les explications :” By contrast, in English the extra space is generally after the colon as in “the explanations:  fatigue…” Retention of the redundant space is generally the sign of an overzealous translator or non-English native speaker.

Finally, prepositions and articles must be restated before every noun in a series in French. Note the following sentence: Je suis protecteur de la liberté, de l’egalité et de la fraternité de chaque citoyen français.  By contrast, English tends not to repeat shared elements of parallel structure. The same sentence in translation would be: I am the protector of the liberty, equality and fraternity of each French citizen. Of and the are not repeated because they are redundant.

It may seems proper and even flattering to copy the exact formatting of the source language but it is neither correct nor professional to do so in all cases. As the French say, vive la difference!

Special oops

Sports are complex, leading to a constant series of errors. In fact, success in many sports is the exception.  For example, in baseball, a good hitter makes a hit only 30% of the time, meaning that most of the time the batter fails.  Of course, the reason for a given lack of success is often hard to identify since the interaction of a large number of players creates a complex interplay of forces. In the above example, the hitter can fail to get to first base because of good pitches, poor swing, heavy shifting of the defense, a great play by an opposing player and sheer bad luck, to name just a few.  Occasionally, a player makes a mistake that he can only look at himself and wonder how he did such a thing.  The fans, even the most sympathetic ones, often react to such mishaps in the most direct way – boos.  The less understanding ones want the head of the offending player.

Continuing with our first example, American baseball, players are faced with numerous situations where they are face to face with the ball, all by themselves. A loss of concentration can lead to the ball rolling between their legs, leaving the poor player looking really stupid.  Sometimes, a player forgets to touch all four bags after he hits the ball out of the park, nullifying the hit. A very rare example of being spacey is thinking there are two outs when there isn’t or vice versa. That will lead to a lot of kidding and even a fine on some teams.

Basketball is fast paced, team game, which leads to many mistakes of circumstances. However, there are some moments of individual ridiculousness.  The most common example is the player standing by the net with no opposing player around him and slamming the ball on the ring instead of the net. The only that goes higher than the ball is the blood pressure of the player.  Ball handling skills are taken for granted, especially for guards.  Yet, from time to time, the ball handler forgets that he has already dribbled but does it again in full view of the referees, who have no choice but to call double dribble. On a more ridiculous level, last minute confusion sometimes leads the player holding the ball outside the court to pass it quite accurately to a player of the other team.  Try and explain that to the coach and fans.

American football combines speed, violence and complexity, also leading to a large number of mistakes and penalties. Most can be explained by the interaction of the large number of players but some cannot. An example is the player called for lining up behind the line of scrimmage when the rules require that the offense have at least seven players on the line of scrimmage. As the commentators so sarcastically note, it is not hard to look left and right to see where you are located. Another infrequent error is the poor pass between the center and quarterback, leading to a fumble.  The two players practice this transfer tens of thousands of times. It should be automatic, right?  On the defensive side, cornerbacks and safeties are supposedly taught to look for the ball.  Unfortunately, under the pressure of the situation, a few forget to do so and get in the head with a flying football.  If they didn’t have a helmet, they would have a red welt on the back of their head.  Instead, they are merely very red-faced.

My discussion is limited is American sports with which I am most familiar.  I would happily love to hear about unforgivable errors in other sports.  For example, in European football, aside from a self-goal, are there other WTF moments?