
Fuck You, Pay Me [video] - skilled
https://creativemornings.com/talks/mike-monteiro--2/1
======
dangero
I'm CTO and co-founder of a company that is in the legaltech space and spend a
lot of my time thinking about how to fix contract issues.

I've idolized and watched this video many times.

Here is the truth of most everything in business: Asymmetric power structures.

Walmart is offering you a deal, but they don't allow strikeouts in their
contract. You must sign the boilerplate. You do it because a deal with Walmart
will change your life and you accept the risks.

My point is that very infrequently do two sides of a contract have equal
leverage. I ran my own consulting company for 10 years and even as we grew
there was always a bigger fish that we really wanted and even needed to
survive.

The other way of looking at it would be who has "fuck you money?" or the
"willingness to walk away". Sometimes both sides do, but a lot of the time,
only one side does.

While I find this video satisfying, I'm not sure how much it actually helped
me because as soon as I have the leverage, definitely, I'll make the terms the
way I like them, but the opportunities have not been as frequent as I would
have hoped.

Somebody is always twisting my arm or I'm twisting their arm.

~~~
shalmanese
This shouldn't be the case, the entire point of negotiation is to try to get
to a place of equal leverage.

Imagine this as a thought experiment: Walmart hands you a contract in which
they have plenty of other suppliers they could go who would be eager to take
your place if you reject the contract. In this case, Walmart is leaving money
on the table and what they should have done is hand you a contract with lower
prices that fewer companies are willing to compete for which gives you more
leverage but gives them better terms.

------
sambeau
This thread about what to charge is also interesting and enlightening
(especially the concept of asshole rates):

[https://twitter.com/XCK3D/status/1093937747478233088](https://twitter.com/XCK3D/status/1093937747478233088)

    
    
      This is the basic formula for figuring out your day rate:
    
      [expenses] / (231) = day rate
    
      But this isn't the whole story, because you also need revision,
      hourly, rush job, per asset, and asshole rates.

------
kbenson
This is a classic. I highly recommend for anyone that has to negotiate for
pay, if not for that valid advice then for the pure pleasure of having someone
tell you your overwhelming desire to be an asshole while sticking up for
yourself might actually be beneficial sometimes.

It's funny that this is posted now. I hadn't thought of this talk for quite a
while, but referenced it in a reddit comment just a week or two back.

------
mirimir
> “Starting work without a contract is like putting on a condom after taking a
> home pregnancy test,“ says Mike.

Sure, contracts are a mechanism for people who don't trust each other to work
together. But clear contracts only provide some leverage, if things go bad.
And even with contracts that seem clear, there are still many ways to get
screwed. As in, "I have no reachable assets, so fuck you."

Over many years, working as a consultant, I rarely had more than verbal
contracts. Often, just telephone conversations, and then emails to create
records.

And even so, I almost always got paid. Sometimes it took months, it's true.
But really, my allies were typically the people I reported to. Although I
never actually stated it clearly, clients that paid promptly (and paid at
higher rates) got scheduling priority.

Maybe that could have been part of my standard contract. But I'm not sure how
useful that would have been. I mean, suing my clients would have been rather
awkward, no?

~~~
Xylakant
> Sure, contracts are a mechanism for people who don't trust each other to
> work together.

“A contract is written in good times so that the bad times never come.”

A written contract is the written summary of what you agreed upon so you can
later return to it and say “This is what we did agree upon.” I have a lot of
written contracts with people that I trust.

Keep in mind that people that you trust and work with at a company sometimes
go away. Promoted, fired, ill, dead. Companies get sold or go bankrupt,
Management is replaced by some less amicable management. In all those cases
your sympathetic sponsor may still be sympathetic, but no longer in a position
to help you. A contract is.

A contract should be fair and balanced. If either side regards the contract as
a tool to screw over the other side you’ve already lost.

A written contract necessarily is an imperfect tool, but it’s much better than
a verbal contract because our human memories are much worse on keeping track
of what was actually discussed and agreed upon.

> I mean, suing my clients would have been rather awkward.

Suing is the last last resort when everything else has failed. There are a lot
of steps that escalate towards that. A written contract can help that you
never end up there just by virtue of having a written set of agreements that
you put on the table and point to. But last resort: yes, sue your clients.
When you’ve reached that point, they’ll never be your clients again anyways. A
lot of them will sue you too. And even there, a contract may be what saves
your ass.

~~~
mirimir
That's true.

I guess that I'm biased by the fact that, in the few cases where things really
went to hell, a contract wouldn't have helped.

------
dvh
Where's the actual article, I can only see short summary

~~~
runjake
It’s a video presentation.

~~~
dvh
Hmm it doesn't play for me

Edit: never mind, I found it (it's the green rectangle)

------
walrus01
"But I'll pay you in _exposure_..."

Fuck you pay me

------
thedufer
(2011)

------
subcosmos
It's backwards.

Pay me, fuck you

