Patience, everything will be fine!
Possibly many programmers and freelancers who have a client have gone through “stressful” moments, either due to certain difficulties in communication, or due to not being able to meet certain expectations of the client.
A couple of weeks ago, via #marketplace on Discourse Meta (have I already mentioned that I love Discourse?), a user published what their requirements were, budget, etc; Proposal which interested me since I had certain knowledge in the proposed criteria. After communicating my interest in the proposal, the user contacted me and explained in detail what was necessary to adapt Discourse to the needs of his future Community.
It all sounded pretty good, until ✨remote desktop✨.
Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Remote Desktop interfaces, however for some developers (including myself) we have different types of difficulties for this task.
My specific situation is that I have a laptop (I’m lying, it’s not even mine, it’s borrowed), from the government, in short: little space, too slow (hell, it doesn’t even have ventilation), added to my poor internet speed (guys, 2022 and i have internet of 2Mbps)… definitely the difficulties would not be long in coming…
The first “difficulty” let’s say, was the screen resolution in the remote connection (4K? Yes, in my dreams), however it was the initial program that did not allow adapting the screen to my resolution to work more comfortably; when trying another program everything was spectacular… or maybe not so much?
One of my weaknesses is communication in English, I depend a lot on online translators, and although it often goes well for me, from time to time it can work against you…
There was a tense moment during these weeks where I was having a hard time expressing to my client that something would be “in vain.”
Context: He is using a service that allows Custom Domain, but during the tests it only redirected to the default domain, and it was normal behavior since production credentials were missing.
Possibly an hour had passed in which he probably would have lost my “job” if i had not finally managed to express the situation correctly.
I am a very emotional boy, I felt stressed, frustrated, I wanted to throw the computer and run away, I definitely cried, after all I’m still a teenager, until I finally breathed a sigh of relief. I understood that I had to stay calm, be patient, and try harder to better communicate situations, and of course, have a more confident and positive attitude, since at that point I felt very lost.
Fortunately, the “major” requirements were fulfilled almost in their entirety, possibly there are still certain details that fluctuate through the air and that I will definitely be willing to resolve if the client tells me.
If you read this, client, I want you to know that for a moment you almost killed me emotionally, but in the end it was a pleasure working for you. I hope with all my heart that your foundation grows and prospers, has many successes!
