109 - And Be Nice To People

What this episode covers

Be nice to people. It's the single most important thing. Music and links from this episode Cylinder Nine by Chris Zabriskie The Life and Death of a Certain K. Zabriskie, Patriarch by Chris Zabriskie Sphere by Creo Line-by-line notes INTRO I like to give out lots of tips to designers And generally They just apply to being a good human as well Today's episode definitely falls into this category Ever since we started Genius Division The design agency I run with a few other conspirators We've tried to live by one mantra Work hard and be nice to people Yesterday was work hard Today is be nice to people This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess PLAY MID SONG Manners cost nothing Good manners are your beauty Your mood shouldn't dictate your manners I tried to find quote about being nice too But they were all negative And paranoid Nice guys always finish last Even the nicest people have their limits Quotes like that There's an inherent distrust of nice people Especially in Britain, where nobody can take a compliment People constantly that that if you're being nice, you want something Or there's a reason for being nice Beyond just being nice I absolutely don't believe nice guys finish last at all And you shouldn't either The whole idea of finishing last Suggests there's an idea of success that everybody buys into Which is just not true Being nice is the cornerstone of everything I do I hate it when somebody thinks otherwise of me I hate it when I've hurt somebody or somebody is annoyed at me In an ideal world I'd love everybody to like me And I'm not saying that I'm an egotistical way I mean everybody should just like everybody There's no need for backhanded compliments Or silly games behind people's backs Let's just all be nice And let's get it out of the way now Being nice doesn't mean you're weak Or you're a pushover Or you let others get their own way all the time Despite what Hollywood and TV shoves down all our throats You can politely decline And you don't need an argument to solve a difference of opinion I think in the design world, being nice is especially important The design world is still pretty small And most people know each other It's quite incestuous that way So you never know when you might stumble across somebody again in a different job I don't believe in burning bridges no matter how hard the other side might try to set it on fire Being nice isn't trendy anymore I guess The corporate mentality is to drop things on everybody below you and throw stones at people above you Everybody is a target and somebody to be stepped on But in a meritocracy Where everybody is out to get on the next rung of the ladder It forgets about the people Design is all about people It's about the people you share a studio with It's about your clients you help create amazing work for And it's about your peers and other people who you ask for advice from You have to be nice to all of those people, all the time In fact, just be nice to people It just feels Well Nice OUTRO This was AADA. I’m Craig Burgess. Music featured in this episode was Cylinder Nine by Chris Zabriskie The Life and Death of a Certain K. Zabriskie, Patriarch by Chris Zabriskie Sphere by Creo For a line-by-line run down of this episode, go to askadesignernaything.com/ep109 I’m back tomorrow for another episode of AADA Support Ask a Designer Anything Ask a Designer Anything Website Twitter (@craigburgess) Ask a Designer Anything on Facebook Leave me a review on iTunes