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You’ve done what?

Go-getters take risks and sometimes risks go wrong. When things go wrong people can get upset and angry. Sometimes doing the right thing for your career means that you have to deal with or even provoke someone’s anger.

What happens when you stir up a hornets’ nest? you might just find it works out in your favour.

An old trooper of a colleague of mine, John, had a problem client Alan. Alan never accepted that John and his company were doing the best job they could and giving a good service. He did what probably the worst of customers do – he kicked a willing horse. Alan was the training manager of a huge international company. The managing director of the company didn’t see the need to meet the people who were training her staff, so John couldn’t get round Alan and talk sense to her. John took this quietly for a while until he felt that the success of the client as well as the success of his company was threatened by this difficult, or ugly, person.