I’ve been thinking about these themes lately:
If you’re not proud of it, don’t serve it.
If you can’t do a good job, don’t take it on.
If it’s going to distract you from the work that truly matters, pass.
They remind me of some advice I received from Bernard Hotz, a South African lawyer I worked for many years ago. He said you should never compromise yourself, certainly not for a client. That advice has particular significance in legal practice but it’s good advice in general.
With everything being so interconnected, your work speaks for you “out there” and if you consistently deliver work you are not proud of, you are compromising yourself. It could be for a client, for money or for some other short term reward.
The question to ask yourself is whether those compromises are worth it, really?
Source: Seth Godin’s post titled “On saying “no””