Translating certificates – distinguishing marks

 

No translation of a novel is the same. The style, language and sensitivity of the translator render each translation unique to itself. That situation applies to legal translation, albeit to a lesser degree. The same cannot be said of official document translation. As the quantity and variability of words is so limited, it is quite probable that different translators will produce essentially identical documents, as it should be. Yet, in this niche, it is possible to “stand out” from the field and be more successful mainly through the “soft skills” required to attain and retain customers. These skills include ensuring findability, professional communication, careful listening, deadline setting and accountability. Together, they create a personal brand in a rather generic niche.

The a priori of developing a client base is making it easy for translation buyers to find you. As private customers represent a significant percentage of one’s clientele, it is the translator’s task to create high visibility and convenient contact. Specifically, the customer searching for a translator of an official document from one language to another phrases the search in a certain manner and directs the search to certain tracks, including AI, LinkedIn, Facebook and professional association search engines. The greater the exposure, the higher the chance of being noticed. However, too many translators forget to make their email address and phone number clearly visible or even include them. The average translator buyer simply chooses another name when faced with a challenge. Thus, official document translators must have a presence where customers search in a manner that allows for effortless follow-up.

Once contact is made, whether by email, telephone or WhatsApp, the potential buyer, generally lacking any ability to discern the potential quality of the translation, places great importance on the tone of the communication. A customer is neither a friend nor an enemy. The market creates business relations, which value ease and comfort. True, a few words of friendly conversation may be beneficial, depending on the individual culture. However, the messages must be clear and complete and create a minimum of follow-up. In other words, the translator must provide the required information in the most accessible and efficient manner possible. This approach creates the impression, sometimes accurate in practice, that the translator is a professional, regardless of how many years of experience that person may or may not have. On the other hand, inappropriate, inefficient or simply excessive words annoy, which may lead to the buyer choosing someone else. The translator sets the tone of the communication.

In order to provide that information and reinforce the “professional” impression, it is first necessary to listen and ask questions. First, many buyers enjoy talking. It is important to have some kind of human communication here. More importantly, it is vital to ask questions regarding information that is necessary for fully defining the service, such as the receiving agency and need for notarization. These queries both save time for everybody and create the impression that the translator is an expert. Listening and clarifying solidify the business relationship and ensure smooth processing.

One of the key elements of that information is setting a mutually acceptable deadline. For the client, the amount of flexibility varies in regard to the actual required date of delivery. It is important to ascertain the actual deadline. For the translator, each document requires a certain period of time, including sufficient time for proper quality control. It is one of the reasons I do not provide same-day service. Ultimately, it is counterproductive to produce inferior or flawed work or, in the worst case, miss the deadline. Allowing extra time and delivering earlier is a far more successful strategy, like a merchant adding product to a hand-weighed service, such as selling loose candies, as compared to taking some away to attain the desired amount. If customers receive their translation early, it is a bonus for them. It is vital to find the deadline that meets both needs.

To turn a one-time order into a long-term relationship and receive referrals, it is necessary to take responsibility for one’s errors when they occur. Many documents are quite complicated in terms of names, numbers and formatting. No craftsperson (including translators) is perfect; mistakes happen. Fortunately, most buyers understand this to a certain extent. To retain customers, especially when it is necessary to make a correction, requires humility and strength. Prompt and effective handling of any issues smooths over most ill feelings. Whatever anger and frustration a translator feels inwardly and outwardly is not relevant to the matter in hand. In fact, it is best to accept, regret and fix the error with as little emotion as possible. Beating oneself up or the customer is not a good recipe for long-term success.

Thus, while official document translators produce rather “vanilla” documents, they can act to become more or less effective. The most successful translators, including those of official documents, actively market, communicate professionally, listen, set proper deadlines and stand behind their work. All of these soft skills are a matter of approach and habit. They are an essential part of running a translation or, for that matter, any business. They lead to customers coming back and giving you good marks.

Work-life balance – The Melo example

 

[Magic Johnson*]

I have always read the “Sports” section first, whether of the morning newspaper of my youth or the websiteד of these years. I really enjoy seeing my favorite teams win, which they unfortunately only do occasionally, but I am not overly upset if they lose because sport is only a game. This week, an article posted in Yahoo Sports discussed LaMelo Ball, the rookie guard for the Charlotte Hornets of the NBA, for those not in the know, like me [link]. The gist of the article is that he is having a fantastic season, is incredibly talented and looks like he is having the time of his life playing basketball. Furthermore, he is as successful and happy as he is specifically because he treats basketball, i.e., his career and livelihood, as a sport only. In other words, he strives to be successful and make lots of money but knows that the real life is elsewhere, quite a bit of wisdom for someone only 19 years old. His successful approach is also relevant to non-NBA basketball players and older folk in terms of commitment, attitude and perspective.

It is clear that there is a strong correlation between success and effort. The more time and effort you invest in your profession, the more skillful and profitable you will become. As I heard in a recent webinar by Corinne McKay, she set a specific financial goal, a rather high one at that, and then sought and found the manner to attain it. To stand above the rest, it is necessary to consider a strategy and then apply it with discipline. In other words, to be a professional, you have to act like a professional, whether you are an NBA star and a freelancer. Commitment is a key.

The “secret sauce” of success is enthusiasm. People are instinctively attracted by positive energy, a factor much easier to identify than skill. Professionals that broadcast the image that they enjoy their work are simply more successful in engaging customers and colleagues, creating a form of synergy. By contrast, unless due to inertia or forced by a lack of choice, we avoid people that hate their job. Therefore, it is vital in invest your person in your job to succeed.

Yet, even our careers, our livelihoods, are essentially a game. Most people want to succeed, be promoted and make more money. Yet, regardless of their achievements in those areas, happiness is fundamentally derived from internal tranquility, friends and family. In other words, the correlation between income and happiness is fundamentally low, removing the outliers such as homelessness and lack of food. How many people found themselves renewed and happier as a result of the Corona crisis, which upturned the professional paths of countless people? Ideally, work is a serious game but only a game.

I admired the skill and dedication of Kobe Bryant whose drive to be the best was unchallenged but believe that his approach is not practical, relevant or even healthy for the vast majority of people. By contrast, Magic Johnson (of my time) and LaMelo Ball were and are must- sees, as the article states, not only because of their skill but also because of their approach. It is desirable and possible for any person, great or small, to invest in and enjoy their work and still lead a balanced life by remembering that, as the Israeli singer Dafna Dekel sang in the 1992 Eurovision contest, זה רק ספורט [ze rak sport], it is only sport.

* Help the blind access the Internet by inserting picture captions.

Successful persona – I have got that feeling

 

[Success*]

At the 2019 American Translators Association conference in Palm Springs, I had an illuminating conversation with a young translator. After I asked how he was doing, he said that he felt that he didn’t belong there. My response was that I had felt the same way for many years. His remark touched on an issue that is not openly discussed. Clearly, the sense of not being a real professional is a difficult matter to be shared with your peers. The difficulty in feeling successful is the lack of a universal or even accepted definition although it is possible to note some measures of aspects. Even worse, it is a chicken-egg problem since self-belief in success serves as a precondition to it.

[Income chart]

The most common measure of success is income, however that is defined. The vast majority of people wish to be financially secure. The ambiguity arises from the definition of that concept. For some, just knowing that all bills will be paid this month provides great security while others require large sums in the bank, maybe millions, to provide that same sense of security. Most people are somewhere in between and aim to have some blend of flexibility on the monthly budget as well as sufficient bank reserves. This subjectivity creates a situation where the identical income can create a feeling of great security or insecurity, depending on the person and circumstances. The scene at the end of Dumas’ the Count of Monte Cristo where Baroness Danglers and Mercedes end the books with the identical fortunes and opposite conclusions demonstrates the subjective definition of wealth. Thus, it is impossible to say how much income is required to make a person feel successful, rendering irrelevant any attempt to equate success with income.

[Blue ribbon]

Another measure of success is professional skill, including recognition by peers and  by customers. Clearly, having pride in one’s work and belief in its proficiency create confidence. Yet, despite countless efforts to quantify good work, running a business is as much an art as a science. While there may be clear benchmarks, there are countless ways to achieve those goals. Furthermore, people rarely actually see their colleagues at work to allow them to compare craftsmanship. Not only that, these few peers that observe your work often feel constrained to express their true opinion or so it seems. So, it is generally difficult to objectively determine whether our work is professional or not. At best, it is possible to state that there are many more colleagues whose products are worse than ours than those whose products are better than ours. Even customer feedback can be misleading in that not all customers are capable of accurately assessing the work nor do they report results representatively. Thus, even the sense of professionalism is ultimately subjective.

The easiest basis in searching for a basis of feeling successful is creating and appreciating vectors. The unrelenting commitment to doing the best job possible and making constant improvement, whether in terms of income or skill, often leads to a feeling of being professional. In other words, while there may be those that are better than me at this point in time due to their experience, I strive for the best and am building a better future. Thus, in these fully objective and controllable goals, I am a professional, no less than my peers that are more experienced or more skillful than me.

[Brain with muscles]

This issue is not merely philosophical but instrumental for selling a service. Most customers are insufficiently familiar with a given product or service to properly evaluate it even if they had sufficient time and energy. Even more than recommendations, customers judge us as we judge ourselves. When business people project real confidence in themselves, customers pick it up, whether the communication is oral or written. Most customers can identify bluffing, rendering it is a poor long-term strategy. Instead, all entrepreneurs must understand and properly value their skills. A justifiably confident “I can do this” is the key for project approval. So, all business people must cultivate their belief in their skills to be able to apply those skills.

This belief creates the reality. Putting politics aside, millions of American believe that Trump is a successful businessman despite the fact that he has gone bankrupt 6 times because he believes that he is successful. Granted his self-confidence is a statistical outlier, his example highlights the requirement to have faith in one’s skill regardless of the current objective circumstances. To that young translator at the conference, I would say that you are a professional in that you have studied the craft, are working and striving for greater skill by having attended that translation conference. To all entrepreneurs, I would say that the persona of success is created by accentuating your true positives first to yourselves and then to others.

* Captions are important to the sight impaired. All pictures via Pixabay.

The Wisdom of our Fathers

Happily, I am not writing an obituary.  I have just returned from visiting my father, who is recovering from a fall that led to a hip replacement and a stroke.  In March, he will turn 95 years old. I spent much time with him at the rehab center. As I sadly left the center to return to Israel, he strongly informed me that he had many birthdays in front of him and not to worry. Whether this is true, neither he nor I can know for certain but optimism is the key for most successes in life, including living.

My father is not a great talker but expresses himself through action. Considering his business success, his life journey provides keys for success for any entrepreneur that wants to make it. He began as a journalist at the AP, where he learned how to write well and under pressure, an important basic skill.  He did his underpaid and overworked apprenticeship in public financial relations (preparing quarterly and annual reports and investor relations) with a large firm in New York, learning the trade. Before he struck out on his own, he had mastered the basics of the business.

Armed with this knowledge, optimism and a small nest egg, he set for Los Angeles and set up his own company. The market was ideal as Los Angeles was an affordable, growing city at the time.  Moreover, he carefully chose his clients, looking for solid reputations, intelligent management and long-term perspective and avoiding well-paying but notorious companies. He was careful in his promises and but gained a reputation for honesty and efficacy, which led to more customers. Ultimately, he created the largest private Financial PR company in the West Coast. Careful consideration and planning made that possible.

Yet, money was not the only factor motivating his actions.  Offered the opportunity to also manage another office in Chicago, he declined it because he did not want to spend half a week away from his family.  As he grew older, he retired gradually, initially selling his shares to this partner but keeping an office, followed by renting an office in a building near his home, until he eventually withdrew from the whole business.  However, the knowledge and skills he attained have helped him remain an astute investor, always looking at the management and industry and checking the numbers very carefully.  Many a pension fund manager would envy his results. More importantly, managing his portfolio has given him a reason to get up in the morning and raison d’etre for being even as he became handicapped physically. As in sports, it is as important to know how to retire as is it to start the career. Family and personal happiness are of no less importance than income.

In short, an entrepreneur must apply preparation, careful action and long-term planning to achieve success, then and now.  I cannot say that I did so nor did I understand or even appreciate his success.  Alas, it is often too late until we appreciate the wisdom of our fathers.

The joys of detour

My wife and I hosted a group of translators and editors at our house this last week. Some seven colleagues travelled to Karmiel for an evening of conversation and enrichment, enriched by a short lecture by Uri Bruck on websites and Internet strategy. The group brought together a wide range of specializations, from literary to CNC as well as a wide variety of backgrounds.  It was a pleasant and fruitful gathering.

Upon analysis, the most striking element shared by the participants was the fact that everybody had “fallen” into translation after a successful career in something else. Otherwise phrased, each translator had acquired a body of knowledge in specific fields, including its lingo and techniques, and then began translating. Some of the previous (and current) lives that came up included nursing, teaching, machining and planning. While today more young people study translation as part of their initial higher education, traditionally translation has begun as a second career.

However, the timing of this choice is actually an advantage. When asked by aspiring translators about the elements of success in this business in the age of Google and machine translation, I emphasize this point: you have to be expert in some field in order to carve out a niche.  Language and process are unique in each field of endeavour. Once a person becomes a maven in an area, however narrow that field, the quality of the translation will lead to success. Linguists that do not understand a field, no matter how skilled they are in search techniques, simply cannot produce the same quality translation. By contrast, people with language skills can learn translation techniques at any time.

The old Carnegie Hall joke, “How to you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice!” applies in a different way to translation.  How do you have a successful career as a translator? Practice something else. Then practice translation.

Photo by Ashley Batz on Unsplash

Dyslexic enablement

This week, a cousin of mine, David Rifkind, died at the early age of 51. He was a very successful real estate promoter in Los Angeles. During our last conversation in the summer at his house, we discussed dyslexia and its effects on our lives.  It turns out that we also had that "disability" in common. His comments expressed my feelings exactly and hopefully can serve as an inspiration to those who have it and those who work with them.

He enthusiastically stated that dyslexia was the key to his success.  Specifically, he noted that his ability to think differently allowed him to find solutions that "normal" people could not imagine. Instead of handicapping him, it gave him a leg up. If a task needed more analytical and less intuitional skills, he hired the appropriate person. So, dyslexia is not a curse but a blessing in many situations.

Naturally, depending on the type of dyslexia, other tasks can become difficult or even almost impossible. Dyslexics require great concentration to execute specific routine tasks. On the other hand, everybody finds certain simple jobs quite complicated. Most dyslexics find a way, granted unconventional, to attain reasonable success in these deficiencies. These strategies include proper scheduling, extra time, and no multitasking, to name just a few. Ultimately, dyslexics can achieve their goals no less successfully than others, sometimes on their own and sometimes with the help of others. The road is not always smooth or conventional but does lead to Rome.

Depending on the level and type of dyslexia, working with dyslexics may involve showing some flexibility and understanding. The price is well worth it. In a rapidly changing world, every company needs people that grasp the situation quickly and think outside the box.

So, to all those feeling frustrated by dyslexia or using it as an excuse for failure, I suggest that you embrace it and appreciate your unique approach to the world. Accentuate the positive, overcome the negative and find the niche in which your special talents will shine.

In memory of David Rifkind